Value of What's Lost
by WithoutHesitation
Summary: Escaping the Labyrinth had its price... And so does growing up. By the time Sarah realizes her dreams are slipping away, will it be too late? Is she willing to return to the Labyrinth to find them, or even more dangerously... even trust the goblin king?
1. Slipping Away

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

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Well, those who know me, know this is a new fandom for me. Those who don't know me, probably wonder what the heck I'm talking about. Either way... I promise to do my best. Both in staying true to character, and to updating regularly. (I'm usually pretty good at both, from what I'm told.) I hope you enjoy this... Just as importantly, I hope I have just as much fun writing it as I expected...

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'_Buena Luna_' was the most expensive restaurant in the whole city, and every detail spoke of it. It was vast in size, reminiscent of an old castle ballroom, with high cathedral ceilings and intricately painted murals. An enormous crystal chandelier hung amongst great swathes of crushed red velvet, realistic flickers from the now electrical bulbs cast hauntingly across the darker room beneath… Each table, solid wood, hand carved, bathed in a fragile aura of candlelight. An orchestra's murmur, cast throughout the elegant brush of color and shadow.

And then there was the food… Well, technically, neither of them had tasted the food yet. Their orders would take another twenty minutes, at least. And to be honest, the waiting was beginning to be unbearable. Adam focused rather intently on the knuckles of his hands, watching the candle's light flicker shapes across his long fingers. He needed to think of something to say. Not the obvious. Not yet.

He was aware of Sarah sitting across from him, just as silent. Without looking, he knew what he'd see… Her head bowed, tongue grasped lightly between her teeth in concentration. One hand, grasping the featureless black pen, the other, its fingers flared across the breadth of an empty page. More focused in the idea she was currently trying to work from her head, than their elegant surroundings.

Lifting his gaze, he felt a surge of frustration to see that he was right. He might as well have not even have been there… He cleared his throat, reminding her, as discreetly as possible, that they _were_ in fact, on a date.

Sarah didn't even look up. "Hold on…" She murmured, the tip of her pen flying swiftly across the white paper… Eyes, behind their veil of brown, beautifully intense, gleaming with fervor. "This place would be perfect for the castle… The main window facing the west, the sunset casting all those colors across it…"

His lips tightened, and his eyes dropped, briefly, back to his hands. This wasn't going the way he'd wanted. Clearly she was impressed with the place, but all she wanted to do, was write about it. One of the pitfalls of dating an aspiring novelist, he supposed…

But tonight was supposed to be _different_.

Sucking in a deep breath through his teeth, he turned his gaze back to her again, narrowing his eyes at the girl he saw before him. Perfect lips, turned into a content little smile. Delicate features, graceful movements… Smooth skin, supple curves, long, silky brown hair. Ink smudging her fingers… That was almost a constant. Mossy-tinted eyes, lit with excitement. Pity the source of that excitement never seemed to be anything _he_ did.

"Sarah…" He prompted, suddenly not as willing as usual to let her forget him, and fall into her little daydreams. "Can you do that later? It took two months for me to get this reservation…"

A frown, gracing her lips, and her eyes shot up in annoyance to take in her long-time boyfriend. "You know I have to write it down, or I'll forget it." She pointed out, like he was the one being unreasonable here. "The food's not even here yet… And I'm almost done."

"No, you're not." He denied, just a little more sharply than he'd intended. "You're never done." Sarah's eyes grew wide, briefly in surprise, and then her frown deepened. Adam took a deep breath, again, determined not to say something he'd regret. "Look, I know how important your writing is to you… But for one night, one _date,_ can you put that stuff away, and just talk to me?"

Sarah made a soft sound of dismissal, and gave him a sour look. "We talk all the time, Adam. We've been dating for three years now. What is there left to talk about?"

Her words surprised him, and it felt briefly like something hot and bitter had just slid down his throat, as she seemed to imply, again, that she just wasn't interested anymore. Not in him.

His hands tightened into fists on the table, and he didn't even notice. His voice, weighted with what he should and shouldn't say, emerging in a rasp… "I'm sorry I can't be as interesting as the people in your _stories_." He whispered coldly, making her pause, just as she was about to turn back to her notebook, and look up in bewilderment, clearly not sure what was bothering him. "I mean, I'm only doing my best here, Sarah… It's not like I can offer you enchanted forests and time-stealing crystals, and-!"

His words broke off sharply, shortly, and he finally noticed that the skin of his hands had gone bone white. Swallowing, he pointedly didn't look at the girl again. Not yet. "I can't help but notice, that you never write about _me_, Sarah." He said at last, more quietly. "If that's your perfect world, then why aren't I in it?"

For a moment, Sarah just stared… There was no easy answer to that question, after all. She couldn't exactly tell him that they weren't just _stories_, but a part of her past she still held onto with both hands, and dreamed about almost every night. That when she went home, after this dinner was over, she'd sit down on her bed, and with a whisper of beckoning, still almost see the faces of the friends she'd made years before. She couldn't tell him, because that sort of thing didn't happen in real life. Except to her.

And even she wasn't sure she hadn't dreamed the whole thing!

"I never knew you wanted to be part of them." She heard herself murmuring as she turned back to the page, an intonation to the words that was almost dismissive. "You're always going on about how I need to spend less time daydreaming, and apply myself more. What do you care about a few faery tales, that you don't even bother to read?"

"I _care_, because you'd rather play with them, than spend time with me!" His voice had risen, just a little, in the otherwise mostly silent hall, and several gazes turned quickly their way, before he pressed his voice back down, into a low mutter. "Ever since I've known you, you've always had your head in the clouds, Sarah. That was fine when you were sixteen, and a junior in high school, but this is the _real world_. There aren't any goblins, or knights riding sheepdogs, or stinking swamps…"

"The bog of eternal stench." She corrected quietly, looking at him both defensively, and a bit taken aback. "And I thought you'd never read any of my stories?"

Adam shook his head, grimly. "That's the difference between us, Sarah. I can actually take an interest in the things that are important to you. But for god's sakes, it's just a story! And you're letting it eat up your whole life!"

For the first time, anger flared in the pretty girl's eyes, and she folded her arms across the table, over the notebook, almost like the lowering of a barrier between them. "You _knew _I wanted to be a writer when we _met_!" She pointed out, her voice an accusing, irritated hiss. "How am I supposed to do that, if I don't do my best to improve my writing whenever I can? How am I supposed to-?"

"Sarah… Lots of people _want_ to be writers." He denied, more bluntly than he'd ever dared to be with the girl he cared about so much. "How many of them do you think actually make it?"

This time, the barrier that fell between them was more than her arms… Something distant fell across her eyes, and suddenly she was looking at her long-time boyfriend, like she just didn't care to know him at all, just then. "Are you telling me that you think I'm wasting my time?" She whispered, her voice shaking, just a little. Whatever she'd been so intent on writing, only a few moments before, now utterly forgotten. "You know how much this means to me…"

"It _means_ too _much_." Adam denied, suddenly looking exhausted, frustrated, and a bit like he knew very well he was starting an argument he couldn't possibly hope to gain anything from. "Sarah… I know how important your dreams are to you, and I know this was a story that meant a lot to you growing up, but…" A pause, and a failed attempt at putting on a reasonable face, before he stated simply, "You _are_ grown up, Sarah. And I'm tired of some childhood fantasy coming between us."

"Childhood fantasy…" Sarah echoed quietly, hurt by his words, despite the defenses she'd put up. "Is that all you think this is, just some childhood fantasy…?" The first glimpse of tears glinted in the corners of her eyes. "Adam, this is real to me! Why can't you understand that?"

Frustrated, angry at having made Sarah cry, and wondering if maybe, this was the fight they wouldn't be able to get past, he heard himself answer anyway, not sure himself why he suddenly seemed determined to make things even worse.

"…And why can't _you _understand that sometimes it's time to let go, and move on?" He pressed, certain he was in the right, and driving his point home because of it, regardless how much he just wanted to make up quickly, before it was too late. "Even Wendy left Never-land, Sarah! Dorothy went home from Oz, Alice found her way back through the mirror…"

A small, humorless smile turned Sarah's lips, as he shook her head, in something like defeat… Not of her viewpoint, but just in the situation in general. "And Dorothy found her way back to Oz, too." She pointed out quietly, her voice both emotionally raw, and just a little stronger than it had been, just a moment before. "Over and over, even… Until she _stayed_."

Adam just looked at her, something in the set of his lips, and in the weight of his gaze, that made her want to throw something at him. Hurt, defensive, betrayed. Like she was the one in the wrong here, when he was the one asking her to give up her dreams. "If you can stay in the Underground, Sarah," He said quietly, finally looking away, "Then maybe you should. That's not an option for me."

The tears finally spilled past her eyes, and Sarah smiled again, because she didn't feel like smiling at all, and because she just needed the strength to say what she was going to say next, even if that strength was only feigned. "Like you said," She whispered, her throat thick, and offering barely a breath, "Sometimes it's time to let go, and move on."

Without another word, she pushed her chair back from the table, scooped her pen and notebook up in one hand, and turned her back on him, walking away from what he'd honestly meant to be the perfect evening. For both of them.

He watched her go, feeling like someone had stolen his tongue. His jaw clenched so tightly he was afraid his teeth would chip. Something thick and painful rising up in his own throat, like tears he simply refused to shed, the way she had.

A movement beside him, as a shadow draped him in its length. Two, thin flutes of golden champagne, set precisely on the table before him, before the wait-staff turned, and walked away without a word of condolence. And Adam lifted his gaze to the glass that was supposed to have been Sarah's, and the slender, shimmering band that lay in the bottom of her drink…

She was gone.

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Sarah fumbled with her key ring, fingers still trembling from anger, frustration, pain. Her vision blurred, by tears that she wouldn't quite let fall. A small, wordless curse of relief, falling from her lips, as she found the right one, and slipped it into place, turning the knob with an angry jerk. Damn it, why did he… Why did _she_…?

"Honey! You're home!" Her father. Sarah blinked, caught off guard by the bright lights greeting her entrance, and quickly wiped her eyes off on the back of her sleeve, unwilling to be caught crying over… Well, anything. "How did it go?"

Her stepmother, moving past him, almost bodily, eyes dancing with excitement… Only to stop short, and look at the girl in bafflement, as Sarah's bruised red gaze refused to meet her own. "Oh… Sarah…" She sighed, looking, oddly, disappointed. "What did you do _now_?"

The girl cast a short, angry look at her stepmother, and pushed past both parents in the next breath, muttering irritably how she 'didn't want to talk about it.' Her father watched as she stormed up the stairs, long blue dress flowing like water over the polished wood, before she disappeared with a slam of her door, leaving both of them in silence.

"I thought he was going to propose?" Her father murmured, the expression on his face well aware that he'd missed something, somewhere along the line, but he simply had no idea what it was… Unaware that this was more or less one of his more frequently used ones. "Do you think something happened?"

"Well," Her stepmother noted, as she shook her head a bit impatiently, "It would seem your daughter said _no_." Clearly disappointed, she sighed, turned her back on the whole thing, and went into the kitchen, leaving him to stare after the girl, and weigh whether or not, when she was in this sort of mood, she really wanted any interference from him.

In the end, he turned away too. He just didn't know how to handle his volatile daughter's moods, never had. But it was supposed to get better, now that she was older…

Sarah, for her part, had long passed the point where she expected the man to beat down her door to try to offer comfort… But couldn't help leaning her back against it, listening, sniffling, wondering what she would do if he did. For once, she honestly didn't want to talk to him… And her stepmother! Acting as though _she_ were the one to do something wrong!

With a muffled sob, Sarah finally drew away from the door, and pulled off her coat, throwing it randomly to one side, before she dropped, rather heavily, in front of her vanity. For a long moment, tired eyes scanned the glossy mirror's surface, and then, when she found a smudge, she reached out with her sleeve, and wiped the silky fabric against the smooth glass. Then she sat back, and looked again.

She couldn't quite remember, just when it had started getting harder, seeing her friends' image in the silvered glass. For so many years, just a thought, or a whisper, and there they were… Weren't they? It was harder to remember now. Harder to be sure they really had been there, and not just a figment of wishful thinking.

Her notebook was still clutched firmly in her left hand, she'd almost forgotten she was still carrying it, but now she loosened her grip slowly, staring at the marks in her palm made by the spiraled wire. Her lips firmed, and she sniffed stubbornly against the tears she was still pushing back. For a moment she just sat there, fingers flared against the smooth red cover… Before flipping it open, to the first page that offered itself, and began reading.

…_The trees, laced with phantoms of ghostly images, as lights danced like shadows around her with the endless passing of hours. She watched, mesmerized, held by the Goblin King's spell, as the sun traced its way across the sky, hours becoming minutes, as clouds fought and sparred, valiantly, to hold their place in the sky for more than a breath._

_All around her, her friends lay cast across the forest floor, utterly still as his magic held them in sleep… Still as death, with not even the rising and falling of their breaths to let her know she hadn't lost them, for good this time. And yet she was unafraid… Could not be afraid. Dazzled, instead, by the kiss of his powers flowing through her body, starting at her fingertips, like tiny blossoms of warmth, and threading, with infinite care, across her resting form._

_This was a curse, a punishment, to be sure, for rejecting him, so long ago… Though why he cared after all these years, for the defiance of a proud stubborn child, she couldn't for the life of her understand. And in the end, it didn't matter. Time was his to bend as he would. Magic was his plaything, as much a part of his existence as the air he breathed. If he wanted to, he could hold her here forever…_

_But he wouldn't. Not the Goblin King. Not him. No, knowing Jareth, it would be when the spell ended, that the trouble would truly begin…_

Was she crying again? Ridiculous! She shut the notepad angrily, frustrated somehow, by the lack of a satisfying slam from the loose sheaves of paper. "And if you _weren't _real?" She demanded of the infuriatingly silent pages, before turning back to the mirror, about to say more… Only for her lips to pause, and fall silent, trembling, at nothing but her own unhappy features, looking back.

"Damn you, Jareth…" She whispered, just as if she believed that, after four years, the Goblin King still cared either way, what some stubborn mortal girl, thought of him. "It- it isn't…"

_It isn't fair…_

Wiping her eyes off on her sleeves again, she pushed the notebook away, and cast her eyes from the mirror, standing slowly, and giving a long, lingering glance around her room. When it ended on her little wooden bookend, she smiled, not because it cheered her up, but because it made sort of a twisted sense, seeing it, that she really had imagined the whole thing. Even if that was nothing to smile about.

Taking the clumsy-featured dwarf into her hand, she felt the weight of it, the unevenness of its carven surface, and allowed herself a brief, surprisingly savage, moment of grief, missing the ill-tempered creature. "Hoggle…" She whispered, softly, before turning her head, and taking in the small, stuffed fox, and still gracing the shelf beside her long row of books. Grasping the plush toy, almost desperately in her hands. "Sir Didymus…"

Toys. Just toys. She held them to her nose, and breathed in their aged scent, deeply, like this would help her see them better somehow. Turning back to the mirror, her heart thudding anxiously in her chest, with hope that they'd be waiting for her there… _This _time…

Only to be greeted by an empty mirror. _Again_. "Hoggle…" The name escaped her again, this time in a breath, as she sank to the edge of her mattress, lidding her eyes. "I _need _you…"

And that's what it was, after all, that left her feeling so wrung out and broken… Not storming away from Adam, who she knew, rationally, she should be tearing herself up over right now… But an empty mirror. The words he'd said, about growing up, and leaving childish things behind. When she didn't want to. When she had no choice. Why couldn't he understand?

The last thing she wanted, just then, was to talk to him. If anything, she wanted to _blame_ him. Before he'd shown up in her life, everything had made sense. Maybe falling in love was what had cost her, her childhood dreams. Maybe Jareth just wouldn't put up with her, choosing someone else… _Loving_ someone else.

And… she did love him. Didn't she? No matter how angry she was. Falling backwards onto her bed with a groan, she put her hands over her eyes, and wondered, briefly, if that was all it came down to, in the end. Making a choice. Her life here… Or her friends there.

"I thought I knew what I was fighting for…" She murmured aloud, grabbing her blanket with one hand, and pulling it over her face, so she wouldn't have to confront the world that waited beyond her own tightly shut eyes. "Toby, and… My dreams… The right to make my _own_ dreams… Instead of just waiting for him to hand them to me!" She'd proven she could beat him, after all. Proven she was his equal. Proven he had no power over her…

And damned if she wouldn't give just about anything, for the chance to say it to his face, one more time.

She lay there, silently, refusing to open her eyes, and acknowledge the world beyond them. Listening. For short, maniacal laughter. Scurrying footsteps. Muffled curses. Heavy boots, in an echoing, distorted room… Footsteps she swore she could still hear at night, when she closed her eyes to try and sleep.

"Huh." It was a breath, and a sense of defeat, as slowly, she pushed the covers away, and straightened, finally opening her eyes, and regarding the old toys she'd discarded to the side. Lifting them slowly, standing, and putting each back in their place. Adam… He would call, right? That was what she should be worried about. Not childhood stories. Her boyfriend. For almost three years now.

But when he did call, what would she say to him? She pulled at her lip gently, and found herself, stubbornly, inexorably, lifting her gaze to the mirror again. Hoping as much now, as every time before, that it would hold more than empty reflections.

She was mad at him. He had no right to tell her to give up on her dreams. If writing about the Underground was all she had left, then she'd be damned if she let anyone take that away. And when he called her…

What if he didn't call her? Did she even care? Everything had changed between them… He was, convenient, familiar. Someone she was used to having in her life. But all the stuff that had drawn her to him, years before, it had all changed. He wasn't the same person.

_And I am_. A surge of stubbornness rose in her, a sudden, validated sense of frustration, as she realized that he in fact, _had_ changed. He'd stopped taking drama lessons, never played his keyboard, never quoted Shakespeare or Lewis Carol to her anymore… They never went for walks in the rain, or stayed up all night to talk about silly things that had happened during the day…

How could he be mad at her for being the way she was? _She_ was still the same person he'd fallen in love with_. _He was the one who wasn't.

And now she didn't talk to him at dinner, and made excuses to stay home, instead of visiting mutual friends, and spent half her time trying to be something she wasn't… When had that happened? The world was moving on without her, the people she knew, the life she was supposed to live… And she still didn't feel any different from that fifteen year old girl who, stubbornly and proudly, had stood up to a man that might not even have existed, and informed him that his Labyrinth was a 'piece of cake.'

Crossing the room, lost in thought, she found herself sitting slowly before her vanity again, and examining her own reflection, in lieu of the images she really wanted to see there. A sense of desperation washing over her, of wanting to believe, needing to believe. Looking at the girl who wore her face, and wondering if there really was a point in someone's life, when they just weren't allowed to believe in faery tales anymore.

"I wish…" She whispered, the words slipping past her lips before she ever thought to stop them… And her mouth curving into a soft, sad smile, as she reflected on the familiarity of it, feeling those words on her lips again. A wish. Well, what did she wish? For things to be right with Adam? The horrible truth was, she didn't really care if they ever made up. Even if she ever saw him again. It should have ended a long time ago, and she knew it. So what _did_ she wish for? "I… wish." She echoed softly, still not sure herself what she wished for.

Her eyes dropped, and her lips pulled into a thin line. She examined her hands, and thought of someone else's. Jareth. Why was she thinking of Jareth? Yes, he'd been… So _much _of her fantasy. A beautiful man, that half of her, had wanted to win. Win her, if not Toby. But he was… What? Her enemy? Yes. Her rival. But, that contest was over… And at the moment, she'd take any proof at all that it had all been real… Even facing him down again.

A soft sound fell from her lips, not quite a laugh, and she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, though any tears were now long since gone. "You know what I wish?" She asked of her reflection softly, tired, amused, and sad. "I wish it were real. All of it. Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo, Ambrosias… Even the Goblin King."

"I wish he… I wish Jareth were here, right _now_."

No sooner had the words passed her lips, than an immediate sense of cold and foreboding fell across her, like a ghostly shadow, and too late, she wanted to bite the words back on her tongue. Hoggle, yes, Sir Didymus, Ludo… She wanted to see all of them… but _him_? The Goblin King? She could almost see the smug little sneer on his flawless face, at the idea that she'd come crawling back to beg _him_ for help… Not to mention, that the last time she'd wished anything, concerning him…!

Her breath came a little tight, the sense of cold prickling across her skin like a touch, raising goosebumps as it went. She stared in the mirror, intensely, fearfully, despite her best efforts to tell herself that she would never be afraid of him. She'd beaten him, after all. There was nothing left to fear… And yet she waited for his image. Waited for his pale, perfect features, the cascade of erupting golden hair, eyes as cold and unyielding as stone…

Waited, and saw nothing.

Swallowing, hard, she turned her head, slowly, to look over her shoulder, and scan across the various features of her room, each perfectly in place, untouched, offering no indication of the sudden presence of either goblins, or their king.

Her fingers, still splayed across the surface of her vanity, twitched, just a little, as something in her chest felt a brief, distinct pain. What was that? Was that regret? Did she want Jareth to show up, after all this time, throw her into another of his little games… Did she really want to admit to herself that she really had hoped it would work, and he would come?

The breath escaping her in a frustrated groan, she turned back around, and buried her head in her hands, her face disappearing behind a silky mop of brown, squeezing her eyes shut against the thought that this had been her last real idea of how to fix things, and it hadn't _worked_.

_Maybe I waited too long…_

A soft sound stirred her attention, not quite enough for her to lift her head, and again, the sense of something tickling across her skin, this time like an icy wind. Fingers of breath, tingling against the tiny hairs across her flesh, until slowly, the idea that this time it might not be her imagination trickled through her brain, and she lifted her head, just a little. Just enough to catch a glimpse of movement in the reflective surface before her.

"Well, it's about _time_, Sarah…" Intoned a familiar, smooth murmur, the words thick with amusement, and a mild admonishment. "I was beginning to think you'd _never _call."

Sarah got to her feet, quickly, the chair she'd been sitting on a moment before, cast to the ground in her haste, as she spun to take in the sight of the man suddenly in her room with her. Her heart, pounding away with fear, with hope, even confusion over the fact that she'd been right, and it really was real…

And Jareth stood there, pale lips curved in decidedly self-satisfied smirk, one she still saw so often in her dreams, busy adjusting the lace at his wrists, and seeming to enjoy his presence there a great deal, not quite looking at her yet.

God, he was beautiful. Her mossy brown gaze flickered across his features, taking in each one with a sort of fixated amazement. Time hadn't touched the Goblin King at all, he was exactly the same as she remembered him. Flawless, confident, radiating a sense of power and magic like she hadn't felt in years, and had begun to doubt really existed. Just smiling away, like he'd expected no less all along. _Come crawling back, have you…?_

An irrational anger swept over her, and for a moment she swore she was standing there in a face-off with the lanky, stony-eyed Goblin King in his tunnels, the same child she'd been then, angry, scared, daring him to make a move against her, to prove she wasn't afraid of him. "What are _you _doing here?" She demanded, her voice rising in pitch as her hands balled into fists, and she forgot, for a moment, that she'd just wanted to see the man, desperately, only a moment before.

Jareth chuckled, lifting his gaze from his cuffs, and standing straighter. Giving the impression, though she was taller now than she'd been the last time they'd met, of still looking down at her from some great height. "Forgive me if I'm being presumptuous," He pointed out calmly, his smug expression never faltering in the least, "But I do believe you just called me…"

"I didn't want _you_!" She snapped, well aware that didn't make sense, but unwilling to give an inch beneath that condescending grey gaze.

He paused at this, before continuing, smoothly, adding, "…by _name_, in fact." The corner of his mouth twitched, just a little, in appreciation of this fact… Before he tilted his head, just a little, and his expression became more annoyed than amused. "So what is it you want this time, Sarah? Or am I honestly to believe that you only desire the pleasure of my company, after that rather uncompromising farewell you offered the last time?"

A pause, almost a breaking in what he'd said before, before he added, just a trace more coldly, "…Before you answer, I must warn you, Sarah… Your next wish won't be free."

As if her first wish had been… But was he offering her another wish? And at what price? Did it even matter? Right then she had no use for wishes, what she wanted was to know what had happened… Why her friends had abandoned her, when to all appearances, the doorway to her world still stood open for them? If Jareth could come… Why couldn't they?

Sarah refused to back down before the Goblin King, never mind the raw power she felt coming off him in waves, never mind his, actually, _very _close proximity… Her eyes almost flicked down, but managed not to. "What happened to the Underground?" Was all she said to him, quietly, suddenly feeling like all she'd accomplished and grown over the past four years meant nothing at all, facing her old enemy. Like she was still fifteen years old…

For his part, Jareth didn't look overly impressed with her little show of bravery… His expression, in fact, quite certain it was all an act. "Well, that's not quite a wish, is it?" He noted, as matter-of-factly as if there were nothing at all odd about this little meeting between them, and no reason at all for them to still be at odds with each other. "But for what it's worth, I assure you Sarah, nothing's happened to it. It's right where you left it."

Right where she'd left it? Her mouth turned in a frown, not understanding. He was lying, he had to be. "Then why can't I see it anymore?" She pointed out softly, in an attempt at reason, though her words all but dripped challenge to the man. "Why can't I see my friends?

For a moment, Jareth didn't answer, his deep grey gaze simply taking her in, quite seriously, before the expression, as if it had been a mask, fell away, and he seemed utterly uncaring again, turning his attention uninterestedly to what looked, rather oddly, like a small figure of himself. "If that _is _your wish Sarah, I'm afraid I really must disappoint you… Returning your dreams to you is a power I simply don't have."

Sarah stared, flatly, her anger beginning to overwhelm any idea of intimidation. He was playing games with her again… But she knew how to call this bluff. "You _offered _me my dreams!" She reminded him bluntly, actually taking a step forward in her vehemence. "Why would you do that, if you didn't have the power to give them to me? You told me I could have them!"

"Hmm." Turning his attention, rather grudgingly, from the Jareth doll in her window, the Goblin King considered her at length, a trace of scorn to his gaze now. "Yes… And do you perhaps recall how that little encounter ended, Sarah?" He prompted, coldly. "As I remember it- And my memory so rarely fails me- You informed me that I had no _power _over you."

No power… Was that what this was all about? He was still angry over losing? "What does that have to do with anything?" She demanded, wanting, at least, to make him admit that this was all his fault, so at least she would know-

"It has to do with _everything_." The Goblin King interrupted her thoughts, looking irritated again, this time as if she were simply being a thick-headed idiot who couldn't see the obvious. "I _am _the Underground, Sarah. The Labyrinth is shaped to _my _whim… Did you really think you could deny any power I might hold over you, and then simply continue to gallivant about in a magical playground of my creation, with nothing changing?"

He gave her a short, reproachful look. "Of all people, Sarah, I wouldn't think I'd have to warn you, to be careful what you wish for."

To this, Sarah had no answer… As much as anything, because his words made devastating sense. She found herself leaning back against her vanity for support, looking at nothing at all for a moment, her chest too tight to breathe… And then her gaze flicked to the side, landing on her red notebook. Was that, really all she had left?

She lifted her eyes to him, miserably, not even considering that this too, might be a lie. "You mean, I can't go back?" She whispered, her words barely a breath. "I can never see my friends again?"

A trace of a sneer snaked its way across his lips, just for an instant, as his expression dripped with false sympathy, staring her down the same way she remembered, like he found her pathetic efforts so amusing… "Oh, make no mistake," He assured her, not even attempting to hide how much he was enjoying her frustration, "You still have that power Sarah. I gave that to you, and I've done nothing to take it back.

Sarah shook her head, too desperate to be angry at this familiar game of cat and mouse. "Then why…?" She pleaded, lifting her eyes to him in confusion, her hands balling the expensive fabric of her dress up in tight fists… Her pride suddenly the last thing she cared about, for maybe the first time ever, standing against him. "_Why_?"

The Goblin King looked, briefly, put off step by his long-time annoyance's sudden vulnerability… But his response was, oddly enough, to finally grow genuinely angry, though his next words were, admittedly, very controlled, and very unimpressed. "Because Sarah," He explained softly, advancing on her one, challenging step, well aware that she had no place to back away to, "Every little girl who loves to dress up in frilly costumes, and play with her toys, always has one, final thing in common." He stopped, only when he was staring down at her directly, his next words, undeniably bitter. "_They. All. Grow. Up_. And that is one thing, Sarah, I could not protect you from.

He had her backed into a corner, physically, but that wasn't what had her feeling so suddenly trapped as he held her gaze, refusing to let her turn away. Standing close enough to let her smell him… And he smelled of oiled leather, very old lace, fragrant musks, and the subtle scent of sweat. He was, as ever, overwhelming, and Sarah shook her head, determined not to fall to one of his tricks. "When have you protected me from anything?" She whispered defiantly, pretending, for now, that she didn't need his help.

But she couldn't have predicted his response, sudden, furious, nothing at all like the calm, collected antagonist she still remembered so clearly. "I have protected you from more than you will ever _know_!" He snarled, his beautiful features actually contorting briefly in rage, as her eyes widened in disbelief at the sudden change…

And then his face calmed, and after a moment, his expression was bitter, but no longer out of control. "More than you will ever know." He echoed softly, as if she might have missed it the first time, "…But not this time. If you want your dreams back, Sarah, you'll have to find them again yourself."

It took more than a moment for her to think clearly enough to answer… The goblin king moving away from her now, as if for some reason, he simply no longer cared to be in her presence. Poking, with one finger, at her dwarven bookend. As if the little trinkets in her room were all so, fascinating, to him. Or as if he were simply deliberately no longer looking at her. Either way, despite his retreat, the impression rolling off him in waves, was one of not being willing to yield so much as an inch to the girl.

"How?" She whispered finally, certainly not doing anything as rash as claiming the distance he'd offered… relieved for the chance to breathe again, without being overwhelmed with his otherworldly presence… At least as much. "How do I…?" For the moment, this was all she could say.

Briefly, Jareth paused, in his exploration of her toys. Not quite looking at her, as he answered, his tone once more deliberately indifferent. "I can think of one way, Sarah…"

Her reaction wasn't planned, she recoiled, almost visibly, much to the apparent amusement of the goblin king, whose mouth twitched, despite never having quite looked in her direction. Low anger quickly built in her chest, a familiar stubbornness that refused to give way before his infuriating games. "I'm _not _giving you power over me, Jareth." She denied flatly, somehow more certain of herself again, now that they were on familiar ground. "Not again."

Jareth made a small sound of contempt at her show of defiance. "You're assuming I ever had power over you, Sarah… But very well." He finally turned back, and faced her, his expression revealing nothing at all. "If you are so determined to refuse my assistance, then there remains only one thing I can do to help you."

This was where things would get tricky… Where the Goblin King offered to 'help.' "What?" She pressed warily, well aware that whatever game he intended to play, it wouldn't be in her favor.

The goblin king just sort of tilted his head, looking briefly amused, and a bit bitter, as if there were something particularly satisfying about the answer he was about to offer her. "Why, send you back into my Labyrinth, Sarah. Let you find your own lost dreams within it…" His tone dropped a little here, as he added, pointedly, "And let you find your own way out again."

"My own way out?" Sarah echoed, still not sure how she'd gotten out the last time… Or why it wouldn't work the same way twice.

"Do you really believe that the Underground is something a simple mortal girl can traipse into and out of whenever she wishes, without risk of consequence?" Jareth was beginning to sound a bit impatient. "Sarah, that you escaped there once was nothing less than a testament to your own stubbornness… And I cannot guarantee that if you return now, you will ever find your way out again."

For a long moment, Sarah just stared at him. Her dreams were, in the Labyrinth. She could believe that. She could also believe that Jareth would do whatever it took to convince her that she needed him… for whatever reasons. Which meant she couldn't trust him. "You're still trying to trick me, aren't you?" She demanded softly.

Jareth returned her flat stare, his answering smile, for the moment, utterly humorless. "And therein lies your greatest miscalculation of our entire little game, Sarah…" He whispered, almost more as if to himself than to her. "You've always assumed I was trying to trick you."

There was no sane answer to that… But none of this was sane. And she really didn't care. All she had to focus on was one thing… "I want my dreams back." She repeated, stubbornly.

"Then you'll have to earn them." Jareth countered, without missing a beat. "Just like anyone else." And then a pause as, with a sort of slow deliberation, he went on, murmuring, "Or did you think your dreams were different, because they were born of magic?" When she gave no immediate response, he smirked, and straightened. "Magic doesn't make things simpler, Sarah. Only more dangerous."

"I'm not afraid." She countered without thinking… An instinctive response to, after all, an old enemy. "Not afraid of your Labyrinth… And not afraid of _you_."

"No, you never are, are you?" He mused, not batting an eye at how she'd seemed to feel the need to express that lack of fear for him, without first being threatened. "Then, does that mean you've made your decision? Knowing that you may never be able to return to your world, or your family… Or any _part _of your human existence?"

She didn't answer right away. Not because she didn't know the answer… Not because she wasn't willing to take the risk, to get back what- what he must have _stolen _from her… But because there would be no going back, once she made the decision. And there was no telling what tricks the goblin king would have up his sleeve this time.

Jareth though, took her silence to mean something different… And looked scornful. "Not so certain now, are you?" He mused, clearly not impressed by her internal struggle, or the risks she was weighing. "You've changed, Sarah… I can't say it pleases me. Where is that young girl who once stood up to my labyrinth so fearlessly?"

This sparked a fire in her. "I had no choice!" She snapped, her hands unconsciously balling into fists… Which was only made worse when the goblin king, once again, smiled at her reaction.

"Well… you do now, don't you?" He pointed out softly, and as if he were being just oh so reasonable…. Followed by a short pause, and a pointed, "So what will it be?" With that familiar low challenge in his voice, a condescending humor at the thought of this mere snippet of a girl, taking on _his_ Labyrinth…

But this time Sarah didn't rise to the bait… She was too lost in her own thoughts. She turned slowly, regarding her red notebook, tracing her fingertips across the bent cardboard cover, slowly. Her dreams… Or her life here? With no promise that she'd ever actually have either one again. "Give me some time to think." She whispered, more than she really expected the goblin king to offer, based on their past together. "I just…"

When she said no more, Jareth regarded her with a long, studying look of his own, as if weighing whether or not his old antagonist were worth the trouble… And in the end, the answer he gave her offered no indication what he'd decided. "Time I can give you…" He agreed flatly, "But not much. A forgotten dream dies quickly, Sarah… The longer you wait, the greater the chance that you'll never recover that part of yourself again."

Sarah continued to stare at her notebook, for upwards of a minute… Then lifted her gaze to the mirror, to herself, and to the gaze of the goblin king standing behind her. "Give me an hour." She said simply… As if somehow, she could wrap up all she needed to do here, say all the goodbyes she needed to, and accomplish all the things she might never have the chance to do again, in one hour.

"Agreed." The Goblin king granted shortly, if without hesitation. "But Sarah?" Something in his tone grew warning… and oddly, something else, something she couldn't put her finger on. "This will be your last chance. Don't waste it." A short pause, and pointedly, as if she were lucky to get this much, and should damn well know it, "There _won't _be another."

"I won't _need _another." She denied flatly, as if she were feeling even a tenth of the bravado she was trying to give off… But it was wasted, as she offered the words, turning back to the king… Who was no longer there.

Clenching her teeth, she stood for one moment, undecided what to do next. Friends, school… That job she had painting murals for the community theater… There was really nothing she could do about any of them. Not in one hour. Adam? Adam. He was the last thing she wanted to think about. And having long since learned just how fair things really were, she didn't feel nearly as bad with the idea of simply not saying goodbye, as she knew she should.

That really just left her family… No. In truth, that really only left Toby. It wasn't that her father and stepfather didn't try, but a chasm had grown between them over the years, and she wasn't a fool enough to believe it could be repaired in one hour… or that it should be, if she really wouldn't be coming back.

But to that four year old little boy, she was a big sister, and hero… Hanging on her stories of the Underground, begging for games she still did her best to hold onto… Adoring her the way very small siblings adored their larger ones, still at that age when they were so certain that they wanted to be just like them someday.

Listlessly, Sarah looked around her room, and without much need for thought, began digging in her closet for her old high school book bag… Still crammed full of papers, an old sweatshirt, and an indistinct smell that came from years of use, carrying far more than textbooks and assignments. Dumping it all out on the floor, she stood for a minute, trying to think what she'd need… And turned towards her chest of drawers, deciding that, above all else, the things she'd probably need most were food, and a change of clothes. Just in case. And if she really couldn't think of anything else…

An oversized red sweater seemed good, as did a pair of rather worn jeans. Then an old pair of sneakers. Two pairs of socks. And then she turned to what she would be wearing when she agreed… And for nostalgia's sake, found herself looking down at a familiar cream colored blouse, one she hadn't worn in years. For good luck, she told herself.

Slipping down the stairs was easy, she didn't know how long she'd been in her room, it didn't feel late to her, but now the house was still, silent, and dark. No sign of her parents. Probably they'd decided to retreat, and argue her failings in their bedroom. That was fine with her. It meant no awkward questions… No uneasy lies, about how this wouldn't be goodbye.

She choose her next supplies logically… A few granola bars, three apples, a thermos with water and ice, and two peanut butter sandwiches, with sugar sprinkled on top.

As she stood there, trying to determine what else would be useful, and reflecting that she didn't have the first clue where to find a suitable length of rope, in case it was needed- most likely it would be, simply because she couldn't find it- her gaze fell on a slender, serrated steak knife, left out of its usual holder. Her fingers close around it slowly… And then, with a glance to make certain she wasn't going to stick herself, she slid it into her belt loop, and then, with a bit of afterthought, fastened it in place with a bread bag twist-tie.

Adding a ball of yarn from her step mother's knitting basket as she went to return upstairs, this too was stashed in the safety of her backpack… And common sense, regardless of how she tried to avoid it, was beginning to trickle its way back into her thoughts. What was she _thinking_? She was going to traipse off to some magical world in search of a lost dream… All on the promise of the goblin king, who, it might be noted, she had no reason to trust, never mind that she was still having trouble realizing again, that he had in fact answered after all these years…

People didn't do these things! She wasn't thinking clearly, and it was going to get her killed, or worse… She didn't know for certain yet what was worse but, well, she did remember that _smell_ very clearly, all these years later. And if the Bog of Eternal Stench was the least of her problems…

_This isn't real. I'm not really preparing to run off to some magical kingdom, and match wits with the Goblin King. I'm going to wander around the house until I go crazy, waiting for someone to show up who-_

Who wasn't even real. That was it, wasn't it. Did she, really not believe anymore? Was that what he was talking about? For god's sake, she'd just been in the same room with the man!

She stopped in the hall, leaning against the smooth white paint, and closed her eyes, trying to get her thoughts in order. She'd been so stubbornly hanging onto her old beliefs, and now, getting a chance to have all that back, she was doubting _now? _"I have to go." It was a soft, sort of belated realization, when she'd already determined that she was in fact, going… But the reason for it hit her a little harder now. It was true. Her dreams were slipping away. And this was her last chance to get them back.

Straightening from the wall, she looked down, and the knob of the door leading to Toby's room. Almost hesitant to turn it, go in, and say goodbye. How could she say goodbye? He was probably sleeping anyway.

A twist, a gentle push, and she stepped into the nursery. Toby, now in his little racecar bed… Still clutching Lance-a-lot to his chest. Surrounded by so many more of the toys she'd passed on to him over the years, only holding onto those that meant most to her… The ones that reminded her of her adventures that night.

She didn't wake him. She dropped the backpack to her side, and knelt slowly to the floor beside his bed, watching him without a sound. Soft, blonde curls, framing his face. Lips pursed in thoughtful sleep. Utterly still, save for the subtle twitch of his eyes, as he dreamed.

In the end, this was all she did for the remainder of the hour. She didn't want to do anything else. Didn't want to reflect on anything else she might lose. She just watched the little boy she'd dared the dangerous labyrinth for once before, lost in his innocent dreams.

"A-hem." The Goblin King pointedly cleared his throat once the hour was up, and Sarah turned in surprise, not having realized he was there. And conflicted, again, on seeing the man that, only moments ago, she hadn't been completely certain was real. "Well? Are you ready, Sarah?"

"I'm ready." Sarah agreed, only a little more confidently than she actually was. She'd meant it. She wasn't afraid of him, or his Labyrinth. She would be back. She'd beaten the Goblin king once before.

She _could _do it again.

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	2. Unexpected Help

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

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Only half the length of the last chapter... They can't all be thirteen pages! But man did I write this over, and over, and over again...

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Back there again, on that hill, some mile from the Labyrinth proper… Hot wind cutting across her face, whipping her with her own hair, smelling of dust and stone. She swallowed, gazing out in the distance at the twists and turns she'd found her way through once… Wondering how in the world she was going to do it a second time. She must be crazy…

"Is it everything you remember, Sarah?" She'd expected him to creep up on her like before, but as she turned, there he stood, still and strong as a statue, looking infinitely entertained. "Tell the truth, you'd forgotten, hadn't you? The way it feels to stand up here… All _that_ stretched out before you."

"I beat it once," Sarah denied under her breath, turning back towards the giant maze with a firm jaw, "I can do it again." And without waiting for him to offer his vague warnings, or worse, feigned pity, she started down the steep hill at once, her first steps on what would probably be a long journey. At least she didn't have to do it in thirteen hours this time…

Thinking this, she'd taken no more than a total of five steps before her foot, eager to reach the next safe hold, stepped down too quickly on a smooth patch of stone… And her first daring steps on her newest adventure into the Underground ended with her giving a sharp, surprised cry, as she lost her balance, and fell, hard.

"Sarah!" The Goblin King gave a startled outburst, which at the moment she gave little notice to, as she rocked back and forth with her shin clutched firmly in her hands, hissing softly between her teeth.

When she did think to look up, Jareth was looking down at her studyingly, lips thinned as he seemed to take in the extent of her injury. "My, my, Sarah, a rather ignominious start, I must say." He noted at last, taking a step back as she moved gingerly to her feet, to try the damaged limb. This time she ignored him purposely… Like it would kill him to at least act like he was worried…

Wait, had he yelled her name back there?

The leg, she found as she puzzled this through, was strong enough to hold her up, just sore, and would probably be bruised later. "I might almost think you cared what happened to me." She muttered, not quite looking at the goblin king, as she brushed her hands off on her jeans… And winced, as the sore palms encountered the rough material. "Damn."

"Ready to give it another go, Sarah?" He prompted, having given her a moment to regain at least a little composure. "I know you won't be giving up _that _easily…"

"Hardly." She agreed sourly, not giving him the satisfaction of giving him a second glance, and simply starting off, again, down the hill. Rather to her annoyance, the goblin king fell into step behind her… Like he was really that curious where she was going. "Are you going to follow me the whole way?" She pressed, a bit shortly… Fairly certain that he'd be no help, and would in fact, be doing his best to get under her skin every step of the way.

"Who says I'm following you?" He denied lazily, his eyes glinting with mischief. "I simply happen to be heading in the same direction… You don't really think I care whether you find what you're looking for, do you?"

"No." She denied, a little more softly. "You wouldn't care."

A silence greeted this, and they walked on this way, with every step, yes, the goblin king giving the impression that he was indeed, simply walking in the same direction… But he watched her, rather calculatingly, as she didn't offer any further complaint, or even show a trace of irritation at being brought into his world so deliberately far from her goal… again.

Truth be told, she was too lost in her own thoughts… Despite all the tricks and turns she knew the Labyrinth would be throwing at her, once she reached the maze proper, she couldn't quite ignore the sense of rising excitement playing about her chest like a newly freed bird, at the realization that she was _back_. And somewhere in those walls were all the things she remembered, all the people she'd known, her _friends_… Jareth tagging along was _not_ going to intimidate her.

Still, there was no reason she couldn't _try_ to take advantage of it. "So has anything changed since the last time I was here?" She asked, admittedly a little out of the blue, and probably as transparently as she was trying not to sound. She winced a little, at her blatant attempt to find her footing, with the Goblin King's help… She remembered, somehow, being more subtle than that.

For his part though, if he noticed, he gave no sign. "Sarah," He murmured in amusement, finally seeming to feel the need to walk even with her… If not for the purpose of actually looking at her, "The Underground is a magical existence shaped to my whim… Do you really think I'd leave it the way it was after it was beaten by a mere mortal snippet like you?" A small, dismissive sound, "I assure you, if it could be changed, I've changed it."

Sarah pressed her lips into a thin line, and shook her head. "Good to know." She muttered, not quite as eager as she'd been only moments before.

"Of course, I left the truly interesting parts," He assured her, now making it a point to walk just slightly _ahead_ of the girl, "The Bog of Eternal Stench, for example… I couldn't very well do away with _that_, now could I? Poor Hogs-breath still quakes in fear every time I mention it…"

"Hoggle?" Sarah stopped still, and looked at the goblin king sharply. "You mean you know where he is?"

"Haven't a clue." He denied calmly, as if this really were of no consequence. "Probably moping about somewhere in one of the swamps… Poor fellow really hasn't been the same since he stopped hearing from you. One might almost think you two were friends, or something." Clearly he didn't give much weight to this idea, and was in fact, already moving on to the next subject before she could point out that they were, in fact, friends… "So tell me, Sarah, are you going in there with a plan?"

Sarah hesitated. Honestly? "No." She admitted quietly, figuring it was probably better that way anyway, since plans never seemed to work the way they should in the Labyrinth anyway. "I suppose I'll find my friends… Maybe they have some idea what happened to my… my dreams." A pause as, for the first time, it occurred to her to wonder just what she really was looking for. As offhandedly as possible, she went on, asking in a sort of by the by, "What do you suppose they'll look like?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Sarah." Jareth assured her, almost as if finding some small pleasure in the extra challenge this would offer, before… "Well," He noted suddenly, stopping in his tracks, "This is it!"

Stopping where she was too, Sarah looked at him in puzzlement for a moment, then turned back, and looked at the Labyrinth, which was still a good quarter of a mile away. There didn't seem to be anything else there, where they were… So what was he talking about? "This is what?" She puzzled, turning back to him uncertainly.

"This," He pressed, moving just so calmly back into her personal space, ducking his head as he did, in that familiar, condescending way, "Is as far as I go with you, Sarah." A small, challenging smile. "Are you disappointed?"

Frowning, Sarah took a deliberate step back, determined not to let the Goblin King set her off her game. "No," She lied, figuring that if it wasn't the truth, it should be, "I can do this myself. I don't need your help."

"Who said anything about _help_?" Jareth smirked, taking an unhurried step back, and considering her with a mocking little tilt of his head. "I don't recall either one of us saying anything about help… I seem to recall that the last time you found your way through my world, I did everything in my power to _stop _you. What exactly do you think has changed?"

"Not you, obviously." Sarah noted, angry, and not sure why she was angry… Not sure what she expected from the Goblin King, after everything that had happened between them.

"Hm. I haven't changed in over five hundred years, Sarah." He noted, like the very idea wasn't even worth considering. "I have no plans of starting now." This said, and looking rather satisfied over it, he turned away, clearly ready to do one of his fading from sight tricks… Only to pause, and look back, adding, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, Sarah? Do try to hurry. You may not be bound to thirteen hours this time…" He turned, and indicated a clock whose face she couldn't immediately read, both hands moving rapidly across it as she watched, "But be certain, time _is _running out."

Before she could move closer to it, it was gone again, with a wave of the goblin king's hand… As if he didn't _want_ her to look at it too closely. "Best of luck, Sarah…" He noted, now already beginning to fade from sight himself, "I'd hate to think this was all for _nothing_…"

And with that, she was alone.

* * *

It seemed smaller, from a distance… But up close, when she was near enough to run her hands lightly across the stone, it became clear that the Labyrinth was _endless_. Stretching off to either side, further than she could follow. It was pretty enough, in a unkempt garden sort of way, the dirty little square pools filled with algae and pond lilies, the crawling thorn bushes that crept up the uneven stone wall, finding purchase in every crack… The faeries.

She hadn't forgotten the faeries. She gave them an admiring, but wary eye, trying not to get too close… but whose-ever job it was to spray for the pretty little pests after Hoggle, they hadn't been doing a very good job of it. There were swarms of the little things, flitting about, sitting on jutting stones, conversing, if that's what they were doing, in silent little whispers to each other. All regarding her with interest, a fluttering of wings, and a clear readiness, at any moment, to take her on in full numbers.

"No wonder the goblin king didn't want to come this far with me…" She noted under her breath, keeping a good distance from the wall as she walked along its length, looking for the way inside. As she remembered it though, she hadn't been able to find her way in before either, until Hoggle showed her the way… Even though afterwards, she wasn't sure herself how she could have missed it.

…And once again, the gray surface seemed unbroken, solid, impassable. "Damn you, Jareth…" She muttered irritably, putting both hands on her hips, and craning her neck, either way, to look for a way in. But at the moment, she couldn't even see herself getting past the hordes of faeries… She supposed maybe they weren't quite as ready to attack as they looked, but wasn't quite sure she was willing to risk it. "I don't suppose you'll let me through if I ask nicely?" She mused, more to herself than to them… Even as some forgotten little girl in her really did want to see them closer, if she could risk it.

Craning her neck back, she looked at the sky, currently a sort of overcast gray-red, giving no indication of the night she'd left behind. She wished, briefly, for some clue what to do next. She wished for Hoggle. She even wished, far more briefly, for bug-spray.

But they weren't bees, for crying out loud… They were- They were people, right? An idea struck her, and she turned away from the sky, looking at them again. She had their attention, that was for certain. "Can you help me?" She prompted, deliberately forgetting, for a minute, the lesson she'd learned the last time she was here. "Can you show me the way into the Labyrinth?" All she received, for her efforts, were a few curious glances… But she was prepared for that.

Shrugging off her backpack, she quickly looked through her small collection of supplies, and pulled out one of her granola bars… Kneeling down slowly, to make herself smaller, and peeling the wrapper back off it. Now she _really _had their attention. "You want some?" She murmured, in her most soothing voice. "It's good… Honey, and oats… Peanut putter chips… Nuts… You'll like it."

At first there was no visible response… Then, just when she might have given up hope, one of the little creatures, with wild blue hair, stood up from her spot between some of the thorns, and leaped into the air with a little, graceful spin, moving closer. Sarah held her position, holding the bar _carefully_ at the far end, and wondering, briefly, if this plan made any sense at all.

But the faery approached her, with no visible hostility, yet… Finally stopping, about six inches away, staring quite intently at the offering of food. She seemed to stand in midair for an instant… Before gravity took hold, and she fell, swooping back up with an easy little pirouette, and then, with a sudden little dash, flitting forward, and trying to grab the bar, twice her own size, from Sarah's hand!

Unintentionally, Sarah flinched, but it was just as well, pulling the treat out of the faery's reach, before she shook her head, firmly. "Not yet." She denied, waiting as the creature went through a little spin of temper in the air, trilling in fury, before she tried again. "Show me the way into the Labyrinth, and its all yours." A pause. "Now, how do I get in?"

Whether or not the individual she was addressing understood her, several more of the little biters were growing more curious by the moment, and before she even finished offering her ultimatum, she was surrounded by a swirling cloud of the creatures, swooping, and dipping, lurching in close before pulling back away, and all in all, gauging her reaction.

Now questioning her own judgment, Sarah tried to take a step back away, only to find herself, quite securely, closed in. A tremulous little cry went up at her approach, a warning maybe, and she quickly retook her place in the center, looking around at all of them in amazement… Not beyond, even in her concern, admiring the ebbing and flowing of the tiny, sprite like women. Still, maybe she should just give them the treat, to keep from being bitten…

"The way in," She pressed, as if she still had complete control of the situation here, "Show me, and it's yours. Just let me through." The trilling began to build in urgency, until it hurt her ears, and after only a moment, she was forced to put her hands over them, to block out the wall of building sound…

And then they dived, en mass, and the treat was ripped from her fingers with a scream reminiscent if twisting metal… And then they were at each other instead of her, twisting and charging and squealing, hundreds of them, all for their own fair share of the otherworldly delicacy.

It lasted less than a minute though, before the sound died down again, just as suddenly, and the swarm of them parted, no indication left of the offering she'd made them… Most settling back to their previous places, and watching her again, curiously, like she might provide more.

Sarah swallowed, heavily, unable to believe hat she'd really escaped that little mess unscathed. "Well, that worked wonders…" She noted to herself, frustrated, as she scooped down to pick up the wrapper that the little creatures had discarded, and shove it into her backpack. "Thanks for nothing."

Just as she was turning away though, the faeries lifted into the air again, this time with a low hum, markedly different from any of the sounds they'd made before, and she turned back, incredulously, at the sight of the lot of them now spinning through the air in a wide, deliberate circle before her… As if indicating a single place on the otherwise unbroken wall. Warily, she approached them, flinching when they came too close, but deciding, slowly, that they didn't seem likely to attack.

Her hands found purchase in the uneven stone wall, creeping across the jutting rocks and broken panels, looking for… What, she didn't know. In fact, she didn't even know when she found it, she was just aware of something, she hadn't seen just what, giving way under her hand… And then the next thing she knew, the whole wall was crumbling inward!

Quickly taking a step back to avoid the falling rubble, Sarah stared at the opening, wondering how she'd just done that… Before looking back at the faeries, now once more perched on their various little places, regarding her as something of a curiosity… Others ignoring her outright, now that she wasn't offering them any more food. "Thank you." She said again softly, meaning it this time, as, warily, she stepped through the opening, worried that at any minute, more stone might come tumbling down on top of her…

The moment she was through on the other side though, a low crunching, grating sound made itself known, and she turned back, caught off guard by the sight of the various stones now tumbling _back _up the wall, and into the very places they'd been before she intruded… As if the Labyrinth were healing itself.

Just to be sure, Sarah moved back to where the opening had been, only instants before, and spread her hands slowly across the surface, looking for whatever chink in the armor had let her in before… But the wall was once more solid, unyielding…

She wouldn't be getting back out that way.

Slowly, Sarah nodded, accepting this. "All right," She agreed, quietly, a bit stubbornly, "I wasn't ready to leave yet anyway." She turned, instead, and considered, for the first time, the maze behind her… Not offering an endless path to the left or right this time, but solid stone walls, the only possible route a forked one, leading off at slight angles to each other, straight ahead.

Sarah rubbed her fingers across her forehead, considering this, the first choice she was faced with, with only slightly less enthusiasm than she'd faced the entrance itself. "Right," She muttered to herself, turning to look down way, then the other, "One way's as good as the other, right? It's not like I actually know where I'm going…"

She picked the right path, if only because that was the direction she'd chosen the last time, and started off down the long corridor with a frown, and little hope that this would be resolved quickly. Already, after the noisy presence of the faeries, the silence was beginning to get to her… She wished briefly for company, any company at all, and when that didn't seem forthcoming, made a far more specific wish…

"Hoggle…" She murmured, with little hope her wish would be answered this time, "I _need_ you…"

* * *

One of the first things Sarah discovered about this _new_ version of the Labyrinth, was that its newest incarnation offered no lacks of twists, turns, and baffling little overlaps, which left her second guessing herself several times over, as to whether or not she'd taken the path she was currently on, before. Not wasting any time, it seemed to split off in every direction at once, and quickly, some nine turns doubling over her own path, Sarah found herself staring in frustration at her _second_ dead end… Made even more infuriating due to a deep niggling suspicion that it was the _same _dead end she'd ended up at, twenty minutes before.

Folding her legs up under her in a brief show of temper, she sat down hard on the time worn ground, speckled here and there with tufts of grass, or patches of dirt, and rested her chin on her wrist, regarding the flat, featureless surface in front of her. She had to have been at this for over an hour, with no noticeable progress. "Just like before…" She noted with a sigh, toeing an odd, reddish stone that had worked its way loose at some point. "Am I missing something again, or has the Goblin King completely changed the rules?"

With no immediate answer forthcoming, Sarah folded her knees up, dropping her head down to rest on them uselessly… Trying to work through, in her head, which roads she'd already taken, and left with the somewhat dismal realization that she was, already, hopelessly lost. "I could sure use some advice about now…" She mused, starting to slide off her bag, and rest here for a while…

Only to be caught by surprise when said bag gave a sudden, violent lurch as it fell from her shoulders, followed by a distinct cry of outrage as it hit the stone… At which point the rough fabric began flailing furiously, interspersed by little, angry squeals, making Sarah, not sure what had possessed her backpack, stand back up, and back away quickly, staring at it in alarm.

Something was _in_ there… But when had it gotten in? How long had she been carrying it? She looked around quickly for a stick, and finding one, took it in hand, giving the bag an experimental little poke. The struggles inside intensified in a burst, accompanied by small, indistinguishable sounds, that sounded remarkably like some vocal little creature doing its muffled best to curse her out.

"Hello?" Sarah prompted, leaning forward a little, and with her stick, trying to work the bag open. "What are you? How did you get in there?" A jump, as the pack lurched once more, hard, then went still. "Are you going to bite me?" She pressed warily, taking a slow step forward again. "I'll let you out, if you promise not to attack me…"

Nothing, no answer, silence. The bag didn't twitch. "Okay…" Sarah agreed, bending down, slowly, and reaching out to undo the little plastic clasp… Yanking back, hard, and throwing the flap open, in one smooth movement…

And pausing, in disbelief, at the bright blue haired head peeking out at her accusingly, the second of her still wrapped granola bars hugged tightly to the tiny faery's chest, more than twice her size. Slowly, Sarah crouched back down, considering the tiny stowaway, a little less cautiously this time.

"You followed me!" She noted softly in surprise, finally able to take in the delicate creature's beauty, without fear of being swarmed… Her eye turning to the treat in the small creature's hands, as, its own cursory inspection of her finished, it turned back to tugging futilely at the apparently impenetrable wrapper. Sarah smiled, despite herself. "You wanted another one, didn't you? I suppose you can't eat the whole thing…" Starting to reach out to open it for the tiny creature, she forgot, for a moment, the nature of the beast she was dealing with…

And ended up yanking her hand back, hard, at a sharp pain that lanced through the length of it, giving a little cry of pain and outrage. Frowning at the faery now, Sarah nursed her sore hand, examining it for drops of blood, suddenly feeling for less generous to the little thief. "I was _trying_ to _help _you!" She snapped, reaching out far more quickly this time, and snatching the bar from the faery's grasp completely.

Instantly the tiny woman let out a mournful wail, dropping to her seat, and beating the ground with her tiny fists, like a small child throwing a tantrum. She sounded so utterly heartbroken in fact, that Sarah felt her irritation relent, a little, and she sighed, opening the wrapper while the tiny creature carried on, and breaking off a piece roughly the size of the tip of her pinky finger.

"Here now, stop that!" She chided, holding the bite sized piece out at arm's length, and making soothing sounds in her throat. "I told you, I was trying to help you!"

Breaking off its tantrum, the faery looked at her through wide eyes, as blue as her short, tousled hair, clearly judging whether or not there was a trick here. Finally, slowly, it stood up, and approached, one step at a time, until it could claim the treat from her hand… Then yanked away, quickly, and took to the air, not stopping under she could light, easily, on the top of the labyrinth wall.

Sarah watched as she hugged the 'armful' of goody, looking down at her suspiciously, before beginning to chew away at the bite of food far too large for her to finish alone… And she couldn't help it, she smiled, if for the simple reason that she was no longer so completely alone.

"Don't bother saying 'thank you,' or anything." She chided, stashing the remainder of the food in her bag again, and securing it carefully, before she swung it back up on her shoulder. "I wouldn't want to think you were grateful, or liked me, or anything like that." Of course, she didn't expect the creature too, but somehow, just seeing her glom away on the simple snack like it was some kind of manna from heaven, made her feel better… More ready to try again.

"All right then, I have to go now…" She waved at the faery, now utterly ignoring her, and turned back down the way that had led her here, more determined than ever to find her way through to… Well, wherever she was going.

She hadn't gone far though, before she was interrupted by an indignant little cry, making her glance back in surprise to see the faery in the air again, darting back and forth in irritation, before, without a warning, she zoomed straight at her…!

And vanished, even as Sarah tried to shield herself, back into the recesses of the mortal girl's bag.

Slowly, Sarah lowered her hands, even more slowly adjusting the bag to peer inside… Only to be met by a furious, wordless little cursing, making her close it again quickly, nonplussed. "All right," She mused after a moment, more carefully placing the pack back on her shoulder, "I guess you're coming with me, then." There was no point arguing with a faery, after all… She'd probably have more luck trying to make the Goblin king see reason!

At least now she'd have some company… sort of. Now if only she knew which way to go…

----------------


	3. No Progress At All

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

-----------------

I have a cold. Such a cold I have... I no longer remember how many times I've taken cold medicine now. That being said... I am late replying to reviews. I am sorry. I will get to it when... um... Tomorrow, I think.

Okay?

Oh, I almost forgot... I actually thought the river in this chapter was quite original... Then I read a couple Discworld Novels. Actually in that order. As it turns out? Not as original as I'd like...

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When she reached the river, it was a bit of a surprise… Not so much that there was a river in the labyrinth, so much as the fact that it couldn't rightfully be called a river at all. No, this was mud, thick, oozing, flowing a dark dirty brown, and smelling of copper and oil, like pennies held in a sweaty hand. All in all, it looked like nothing so much as the runoff from the bog of eternal stench… Thankfully though, despite the appearance of the bubbling, churning mixture, the smell was, as noted, nowhere near as bad.

Still, Sarah wasn't exactly gripped by the urge to cross it… Especially when, after a moment of staring at the foul flowing bog, something long and sinuous rose up, undulated down its length just under the surface, and disappeared again, all without ever quite being seen… But at least three feet in length. Add to that the fact that the 'river' was a good twenty feet wide, with no indication how deep it might be… And she wasn't gripped with any real desire to try wading across.

Water at least could be swum in, after all.

Running her fingers through her hair, Sarah looked left and right down the length of the corridor she'd chosen, or rather, north and south, and sighed, lips tightening into a little bit of a frown. "Well, damn." She said softly, all very matter-of-fact, but more than slightly irritated. "How am I supposed to get across?"

Fortunately, whatever governed such small mercies allowed the path to continue down alongside the river, rather than forcing the walls to close in upon its banks, and giving her immediate need to decide what to do… For now, she just could continue along its edge, and see if maybe there was a way to cross later. And since at the moment, there were no side paths, that was good, because the only alternative was heading back the way she'd come, for upwards of thirty minutes, before she'd reach the last place it split. If it was even still there.

The smell, again, nasty, but since it could have been worse, Sarah wasn't complaining… Yet. There was no point grumbling over it, anyway. What there might be a point in grumbling over, was the fact that she'd been on her feet, walking more or less nonstop, for the past four or so hours. Her legs were getting tired. Her back was getting stiff. She didn't remember either of those being a problem the last time she'd challenged Jareth's little maze.

Sarah walked pretty much in silence, keeping one eye on the noxious broth brewing to one side, and taking care not to step in it… She didn't know for certain the smell wouldn't transfer to her in this stuff too. But more importantly, there were just a few too many of those odd, undulating shapes for comfort, usually more towards the middle of the river, but still far too close not to worry about one rising out of the muck, looming over her, and maybe swallowing her whole.

She began to imagine, quite vividly, what they must look like. Elongated snake with big heads, and mouths full of daggers. Eels, monstrous and slippery, a slimy sheen off their hide, black pits for eyes… Similarly sword-like fangs. Or something that trundled along a shallow bottom, like a centipede, with hundreds of legs, each ending in a sharp hook, and massive pincer-like jaws… Or horrible, rubbery leeches, with gaping, sucking mouths, and rows of teeth…

Shuddering, she kept _well_ away from the edge. But as minutes stretched, and became the better part of an hour, no outlet from the banks of the murky depths offered itself. She even walked with one hand trailing slowly along the stone walls, carefully avoiding eyestalk fungi, and strange clinging patches of moss, just in case the whole place wasn't 'not quite what it seem'-ing her. Again.

Not slowing in her pace, if not exactly walking quickly either, to avoid slipping in the steadily slickening bank, she didn't see the mud rise up behind in a somewhat taller shape than before- but she heard the low 'blurp, blorting,' of the stuff sucking away at whatever was trying to escape its depths, and spun quickly… Almost losing her balance, and ending up once more on the ground… Catching herself only by the hand she'd been keeping on the wall.

Horror quickly gave way to amazed curiosity though, as what emerged from the depths wasn't some sort of monster, but a rather gangly, flat head creature, which might have even been mistaken for a rather unpleasant featured man. It had dun-gray skin, and a large, bulbous nose- how it was keeping the mud out of it was anyone's guess- a rather balding, flattish head, a tiny mouth, and a long, thread-like mustache. All of which dripped, currently, with gobs of mud.

It- He- blinked at her with wide, startled blue eyes… Rather like the eyes of a sleeper who's just been awoken from a sound rest, to find somebody else in his bedroom. He regarded her, quite puzzledly, for upwards of a minute, then turned, and looked around himself, as if he might possibly be the one who'd ended up in the wrong place.

Failing to validate that suspicion, he turned back to her, squat, thick eyebrows squished together quite comically. "Who are… _you_?" He prodded, in a sort of slow, deliberate manner… Sounding as if, if she were there, he must know her from somewhere, but couldn't quite recall just where.

"Sarah." She introduced herself, slowly feeling a bit more certain of herself… This wasn't an eel or a leech, after all, even if she was pretty certain it wasn't what she'd seen before. "And you are?"

"Hm?" The creature looked even more perplexed by her question in return, and puzzled it through for upwards of three breaths, before admitting, somewhat worriedly, "I don't know…" He paused, fretting over this in his slow way, before looking up at her again, this time with something else to say, his previous worry already forgotten. "Sarah?" He broached, looking vaguely interested now. "_You're _Sarah?"

"Yes!" She squatted down quickly by the bank, never minding the squilshing sensation as she sank up to her wrists in the slick stuff. "Do you know who I am? Can you help me?"

The creature considered her thoughtfully through briefly intense blue eyes, before that look too faded, and he simply looked befuddled again. "Sarah… No… no. No Sarah…" A vague wave of his arm, sending gobs of mud flying, as he completely ignored the second part of her question, or forgot it. "Don't know a Sarah…" Another pause, and then, almost as an afterthought, "The Goblin King… might know…"

Sarah sighed, pulling herself back up, and looked annoyed. "Don't even _talk_ to me about the Goblin King." She muttered under her breath, trying to brush off the mud, unsuccessfully, on the little bit of grass that remained beside her. "He's the reason I'm in this mess."

Still the creature only regarded her dutifully, before looking around, taking in the sight of the river around him, and agreeing, rather forlornly, she thought, "Mess…"

"Oh, no," Sarah corrected kindly, suddenly feeling sympathetic towards the slow witted… whatever it was. "I don't mean the river, I mean…"

"Mm?" He interrupted her, only to be distracted, a moment later, by a shifting in the depths of her backpack. Now real interest sparked in his eyes, and he extended one long, bone finger towards the thing, murmuring under his breath, "…what?"

"Um, a faery." Sarah explained, offering a little smile, "She…"

"Oh!" The mud creature yanked its hand back, thick features creasing into a scowl. "Nasty, biting things." Then looked at her, ruefully, as if she should know better, than to bring one of them _there_. "Nasty things. Nasty."

"She's really not so bad." Sarah denied, leaning back on her heels a little, and folding her hands together on her knees. "She keeps me company… Besides, I probably couldn't get rid of her if I wanted!"

He stared at her, almost sagely, for upwards of a minute, then noted, in as lucid a manner as he'd had yet, if still slow, and deliberate, "Did you try… drowning it, in the river?"

Sarah's patient manner vanished instantly, and she stood back up so quickly that she almost lost her footing, again. "That's horrible!" She cried, angry and disgusted. "What a terrible creature you are! How could you say that!" Unconsciously, cradling what she could of her pack under one arm, almost crushing said faery, which made its presence known as vocally as possible.

The mud creature looked surprised, to say the least, then abruptly, deeply wounded, and sort of folded in on himself, like a scolded puppy. "Yes… Yes, horrible." He agreed, reverting back to simplistic responses. "Sorry, sorry…"

She couldn't help it, she couldn't stay angry at him, not looking and sounding so beaten… She frowned, struggling over an upset in her stomach over the whole thing, and found herself muttering, under her breath, "It's… okay. Just don't say it again."

"Hmm. Yes. Bad, terrible…" He shook his head, slowly retreating back into the depths.

"Wait!" Sarah was the one to interrupt this time, remembering quickly that she still needed help here. He paused, dubiously, and gave her an unsteady gaze. "I was wondering… Do you know how to get across the river?"

For a moment, he just stared… Then turned, looked for a long moment at the other back, before turning back to her, with a slow shake of his head. "No way across." He denied simply, if a bit firmly. "No way across at all." And then, as before, started to vanish back into the river…

"Please." Sarah's voice was just above a whisper, and stalled him again, this time making him look at her in mild concern. "There must be a way, a bridge, or a…" She failed here, briefly, before pressing on, "Or stepping stones, I don't know!"

He considered this for a moment… Then seemed preoccupied, quite abruptly, with digging something out of his ear that turned out to be brown and shapeless, flicking it into the equally brown and shapeless mud. "Bridge." He echoed dutifully, eyes no longer looking at her, but skimming the surface of the mud instead, like he was looking for something. "Yes, yes… A bridge…"

Then, before she could grasp to this, hopefully, he flopped full length into the river, disappearing with a thick, sickening plop… And the surface of the 'water' roiled and twisted in sudden, angry spurts, as something wrestled violently beneath the water…

Only to have him pop back up, looking deeply satisfied with himself, a two foot long… _something_, gripped firmly to his chest. "Yes…" He hissed in satisfaction, adjusting it, as the girl watched, and taking a slow, savoring bite of the still writhing thing in his arms.

"Ew…" Sarah muttered, taking a slow step back from the bank, until she found her back pressed, quite firmly, against stone. "That is so gross." It didn't take her long to recover her train of thought though, so she pressed, again, "You said there was a bridge, right?" No answer. "Can you tell me where it is? How far I have to go?"

He paused, about to take another bite, and lifted his head, considering her blankly. "Where… what, is?"

"The bridge!" She snapped, finally losing some of her patience… echoed by a sharp, angry buzzing from her bag, which wasn't enough to distract her from her current goal. "Will you _please_ tell me where the bridge is?"

"Bridge." He echoed, a little more decisively this time… Something in his gaze almost clearing, briefly. "Yes." He lifted a hand from his lunch, and pointed, down the length she'd just come from. "That way…. Is bridge."

Sarah groaned aloud. She had, of course, just come from that way. But in the Labyrinth, it was as likely true as not. Never mind that she hadn't seen one before. In fact, she could probably walk down the entire length she'd just traveled, and it would be completely different a second time. "A bridge." She repeated, just a little softly, just a little desperately. "That way. You're sure?"

He nodded, quite emphatically. "T- t… T- t… Toll bridge." He assured her with a slight, nervous stutter, as if there were something particularly worrying about this. Then, without so much as another glance at her, he began tearing into his… fish, eel, _thing_? Like he just didn't want to think about it anymore.

Deciding she wasn't going to get any more from him, she remembered to say, 'thank you,' even if she wasn't sure the guy had two thoughts in his head that made sense, and she wasn't just wasting her time… But he watched her go, between bites, and swallowed, heavily, as she vanished from sight, shaking his head. "Nice girl…" He said softly, almost sadly. "Bad t- t… trolls…"

-------------------

It was of course, right where the mud goblin had said it was… More or less. It could even be called a bridge far more easily than the one she'd had to cross the last time she was here… It was very solid, made of large, mortared stone, thick branches, and chunks of what looked like broken brick. As if it had been built of whatever had been laying around… But built very well.

Then again, it would almost have to be, to hold up the trio of rather large, warty, stone-like creatures, with thick leathery skin, and jutting, pig-like teeth. "You have got to be kidding me…" Sarah moaned quietly, quickly ducking under what little cover that section of the Labyrinth had to offer… Which, oddly enough, looked like part of the bridge they'd started to build, some distance away, and just given up on. She turned it over in her head… Toll, toll… _troll._ _Troll_ bridge.

Squatting behind the low rock wall, Sarah frowned, peering out from time to time, and considering the mammoth creatures, guarding what was most likely the only way across the river. Somehow, trying to reason with them seemed out… As she watched in fact, one, seeing an opportunity, turned, and thudded another troll solidly on the head with a length of thick, gnarled wood, laughing gutturally when its companion roared with anger. This settled into a noisy shoving match for a few seconds, before both sides settled into stillness again, waiting for the next opportunity to interrupt their boredom to show itself.

"Not good…" Sarah mused, leaning her head back against the low wall- And pausing, as a glimmer of an idea made itself known to her. Unhooking her bag, slowly, she looked at the faery inside, wondering if she could possibly get help from the violent little creature a second time. "I have an idea," She whispered quickly, trying to convey her urgency, "You distract the trolls, and I'll get across, and we'll meet up on the other side of the river. All right?"

The faery, lifting its head, seemed alert enough, like she understood perfectly… Then laughed, made what had to be a rude gesture with its arm, and went back to poking among Sarah's belongings, utterly unimpressed by her plan.

"I mean it!" Sarah hissed softly, starting to reach out to grasp the little creature… And remembering just in time precisely how that would likely go, drawing her hand back instead. She looked at the little creature imploringly. "Please? You're my only hope here! I don't know what I'll do if…" She broke off as, in response to her pleas, the faery wiggled the length of its body down into one of her unfolded socks, and promptly feigned sleep.

Well, that little creature wasn't going to be any help… Sarah slumped, thinking this through some more, and bit the tip of her thumb, quite firmly, trying to come up with a second, slightly more successful plan. "I don't know what I'm going to do," She grumbled, wondering if the trolls were stupid enough to run after a thrown stone… And wondering if, should they catch on before she was back out of sight, she would be fast enough to outrun them.

She was so deep in her thoughts, in fact, that she didn't even notice that she was no longer alone… So when the goblin king interrupted her line of thought, she almost jumped right out of her hiding place. "Ready to give up, Sarah?" He taunted her absently, a fist-sized sphere in one hand… Oddly not a crystal, but a round, ripe red apple. "You must know there's no way for you to get across, what with those trolls guarding the bridge."

Sarah, slowly getting her racing heart back under control, gave him a long, exasperated look. "Why do you always show up, when things are about to go from bad to worse?" She asked of him… Or the air itself, actually, since it was more a rhetorical question than one she expected him to answer.

"If I told you that," The goblin king assured her, nonetheless, "Then you really _would _start resenting my presence." And of course, he smiled when he said it. Or smirked. Or something just plain amused and merciless that had no proper word. "But that is completely beside the point, Sarah. How," And he gestured, absently, just to the side, "Are you going to get across that river?"

Her mind of course, raced to come up with an answer… But she still felt ridiculous to offer the completely pointless response of, "Maybe I'll just walk across! It can't be that deep… I saw this thing in the water…"

The Goblin King's lip curled. "This _thing_?" He echoed, skeptically.

Sarah faltered, just briefly. "Well, not a _thing_." She corrected herself, a bit clumsily. "A person. A little shorter than me, really long limbs, bald on top, gray skin…"

"Ah…" The goblin king settled back against his own wall again, returning his attention to his apple… Which he was now, with the help of a very small, silver knife, in the process of peeling. "Mud gnomes. Utterly useless creatures. Have the odd habit of drowning anyone they get too close to… You're quite lucky you didn't try walking across while one of _those _was around." A pause, sort of thoughtful, before he pointed, with the small blade, at the river, adding, "And then of course…"

The mud rose, dripping along a knotted, serpentine back, lifting over a foot and a half from the water, and running at least four feet in length this time, before vanishing altogether, back to where it had come from.

Sarah stared, feeling little goose pimples crawl across the flesh of her arms… Before slumping, and covering her face with one arm, suddenly just too depressed about her current situation to offer a good comeback to the goblin king. In fact, "Damn it," was all she offered, very softly.

And Jareth, being Jareth, just smiled. "Kelpies, pookas, mud gnomes…" He listed, not the least bit contritely, as he leaned forward a little, resting one hand on his upturned knee. "What _do _you think of my improvements, Sarah?" Leaning back again, and a vague wave of his hand. "Of course, all _those _were here before… You simply didn't come across them." A sharp look to his eye, as he considered her, sitting there. "Pity you weren't so fortunate this time around…"

"Pity…" Sarah echoed, lowering her arm slowly, and giving the Goblin King a look that just seemed to entertain him more. "Pity? I'm _tired_ of your 'pity,' Jareth! I don't need you to feel sorry for me, and I especially don't need you to pretend to! We both know this is all a game to you… See if the poor human girl can get her dreams back, throw everything you've got at her…"

"Not hardly everything." Jareth denied smoothly, examining his apple… Which had sliced off in one long, glistening red peel, curving about in an endless slender spiral. "If I did that, the game would be over before it even started… Sarah." A bit more seriously now. "Why _are _you so certain this is all _my _doing?"

Why was she so…? "Then whose fault is it?" She whispered chillily, "Who stole my dreams, who hid them in the Labyrinth, who-?"

"Stole your dreams?" The Goblin King lifted one eyebrow, his gaze suddenly stone again, and his smile far less amused. "I thought I made that part quite clear, Sarah… No one _stole _them…" He waved the knife at her pointedly, "_You. Gave. Them. Up._" And then, like a mask, the look of what could only be called bitter coldness fell away, and he was no more or less than himself again. "You really need to get past this little habit of blaming everyone but yourself for your own failings, Sarah. It simply isn't becoming."

She wanted to say something… Call him a liar, accuse him of some sort of trickery… But it was after all, the same thing he'd told her before, in her room, in front of her mirror, and she'd believed him then. It was just so _easy_ to blame him… Everything had always been his fault and… and he'd _stolen_ Toby…

_You gave __him__ up too._

The words trickled down her spine like melting ice, and suddenly took a great deal of fight out of her, leaving her staring at the Goblin King, for once, without a trace of hostility. "I don't know what to do." She admitted softly, after a moment more. "I don't know what I'm looking for, I don't know where my friends are…" Her voice, meanwhile, building as she went on, "And this stupid _maze_ keeps _changing_! How am I supposed to find _anything_?"

A low, questioning grunt, from the direction of the bridge, made her quickly cover her mouth, hoping to still the already spilled words, and freeze, very still. Only her eyes moved, flicking back to the Goblin King… Who looked, oddly satisfied, at her confession.

"Well, if that's out of the way now, Sarah," He mused, holding out the, somewhat smaller, currently white orb, "Would you like an apple?"

Sarah heard footsteps, coming closer to explore. She clenched her teeth, and shot an angry look at Jareth. "Thank you," She hissed under her breath, "But for some reason I seem to have misgivings about accepting _fruit _from you, Jareth." She was ready to run, certainly not expecting the Goblin King to save her…

Jareth shrugged. "Pity." He mused, biting into his own apple, with a loud, satisfying crunch… Even as he faded from her eyes completely. "Good luck, Sarah… You'll need it."

And then he was gone, and there was nothing left for Sarah to do but run…

* * *

They were ugly, they were slow, but one thing the trolls seemed to be above all else, was persistent. Twice she was certain she'd lost them, exhausted, pushed to her limits, and resting against the Labyrinth wall for strength… Only to have them appear again, trundling footsteps in the distance, ten, fifteen minutes later… And she was forced to run again.

And the river was endless. She didn't recognize anything anymore, and even reached the point where she stopped trying, just focusing on the next step, and the next, her gait starting to stumble as her energy reserves were used up, with no chance to rest. She'd been on the go for at least seven hours, and that only after she'd lived out an entire day in the mortal world… It was quickly reaching the point where she had nothing left to give. And still they came on… Relentless. Merciless. Any idea of getting across the river gave way to the single, all encompassing need to simply get _away_.

Her legs felt like overstretched rubber bands by the time she finally spotted the squat hole in the old stone wall, no more than two feet tall, and less in width, but it was exactly what she needed. She didn't know what was on the other side, but at the moment all she cared about was that the monsters chasing her wouldn't be able to follow, not through an opening that size.

Sarah's first attempt to squeeze through it, of course, failed, and resulted in much angry squealing from her rudely awakened companion, as she was half squished in the attempt… Sarah, her chest still heaving from her run, simply wiggled out of the backpack, and shoved it through the opening first, not bothering with attempts to apologize, before forcing all the air from her lungs, contorting herself as best as she could, and-

For a moment, halfway through, she got stuck, where the stone met her hips. She panicked briefly, imagining the trolls coming on her in that position, and pulling her neatly back out the hole… And flailed a little, resulting in a blossom of pain on her right side, as shirt, and some small bit of skin from the way it felt, gave way to the unyielding wall… But she was _through_.

Breathing hard, she made no attempt to get back up, but lay that way, stretched out in the dirt, gasping for air… Her fingers searching, blindly, for the sore spot on her hip, taking in the damage. The skin though, seemed unblemished… When she looked down, finally, she saw only a faint red mark, and a bit of torn cloth, to mark her struggle.

She closed her eyes, not caring what other dangers this side of the wall offered, and lay more or less still, save for the heaving of her sides for air. She was more than a little tempted to simply not get up again at all… At least not until she'd gotten a little rest. Sleep, if possible.

Instead, as her strength, what there was of it, slowly came back to her, she pushed herself up on her hands and knees, and took her first real look around. It seemed, at first glance, that she was back in the Labyrinth proper… With no trace of the muddy, squelchy mess that masqueraded as a river left to show for her long trek by its bank.

Thank god. If she never saw that miserable mess again, it would be too soon.

Unsteadily, she got to her feet, if for no other reason than that she just couldn't see herself sleeping here. Bag in one hand, she lifted her head, squinting at the sky, and was somehow disappointed when it didn't seem to reveal any change at all, from the time she'd started her journey. No sunrise, no sunset, no sun at all. Unending, unchanging stone walls. Nothing at all to mark any progress she might have made.

Running her fingers through now messy brown hair, she still felt something of a relief, to see the path dividing before her… One fork leading away behind, one off to the side, and another, at some slant, straight ahead. She'd been beginning to think there weren't any twists and turns left in the Labyrinth at all, but one endless corridor… And now, thinking this, she made a face, remembering when she'd thought that before, and been wrong. Which led her to her next question… How many ways out of that little mess back there had she _missed_?

Finally, she chose the path at a direct angle from the one she'd been walking all this time, not that she had any more idea now where she was going than she'd had before. She found herself wishing, briefly, for more comfortable shoes. She'd been certain that these ones would do the job, but now they rubbed one side of her foot just mercilessly. She was certain to have a blister there.

Before long, the path split again… And then again… And she reflected, again, that she really was hopelessly lost. She'd long since lost any clear idea of direction, north might as well be west for all she knew, and she was beginning to realize that just walking endlessly in circles, with no obvious goal, wasn't actually going to get her anywhere. She needed a plan…

A fact she realized all the more pointedly when she found herself staring at yet one more dead end, for all her struggles… Only to be gripped by the slow, chilling realization that it wasn't one _more_ dead end at all. It was the _same_ dead end. The exact same… She stared, in something like bafflement, at where her own footprint, from before, lay in the undisturbed dust. "I'm right back where I-" She started to whisper, only to lose any desire to actually say the words, and just sort of slump to the ground, without another word. But there it was. She was right back where she'd started. She hadn't made any progress at all.

Pushing her bag to one side, a bit roughly, she fell backwards, a short drop, and lay there, arms outstretched, looking straight up. That was enough. She was going to go crazy if she kept this up… She needed rest, _sleep_, and… "Something to eat." She murmured dazedly, finally rolling to her side when, a few minutes into her first real chance to just lay there, her stomach twisted, audibly.

Peeking into the bag carefully, she had one fleeting moment of wondering if the faery had, in fact, eaten _everything_ she'd brought with her… And sighed in relief to see most of her food, in fact, untouched. Though, admittedly, the bread of her peanut butter sandwich did now have little impressions left by tiny faery footprints. At the moment, she wasn't going to be picky.

The first thing she did though, was unscrew her thermos, and take a deep, sweet gulp of the still cold water… The last dregs left by the melting ice, in fact. She'd need to worry about a new source of water tomorrow. Or whatever the passage of time in the Labyrinth was called.

Starting to grab her sandwich next, she paused, in brief puzzlement, as something didn't seem quite right to her. There was her sandwich, her thermos, her ball of yarn, a half eaten granola bar- the faery had been busy, it seemed- and two slightly bruised apples…

Two apples. She'd brought three, hadn't she? The memory of an amused-looking goblin king rose into her memory, as he'd deliberately skinned a bright red apple… And Sarah suddenly did her own best to turn just as red, grabbing the nearest thing her hand found in the dust, and throwing it, hard, at the near stone wall, with a furious little cry. He'd- He'd _stolen_ her apple! In the midst of everything else that had mocked her from the start of this little adventure, somehow _that_ was what hit her hardest, and felt really unfair… The theft of a goddamn apple.

She dropped back into the dust, debating over this, and found it ridiculous. Of course, that didn't change how she felt… He was going to make this just as hard for her as he could, wasn't he?

It didn't seem like she'd ever get to sleep, as exhausted as she was… But there really was no place better to rest than this. She decided she'd figure out a better plan in the morning… Somehow, she _would_ find her way through this infuriating maze, and she _would_ find her dreams, and god help _anyone _who tried to stop her… Jareth among them!

And she wondered, briefly, as she finally started to drift off, if she'd end up back home somehow, and all of this would prove to be the dream… Blinking away the heady onslaught of sleep, she sat up long enough to look around one more time, determine that she wasn't likely to find anywhere safer…

And then the girl the Goblin King might once have called his queen, if she'd let him, fell asleep in the dust of his Labyrinth, alone.


	4. Mornings of Gold?

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

----------------

My cold is almost gone!

Okay, admittedly, _I_ wasn't exactly the one to figure out the riddle in this chap... I don't know exactly who did, but I saw it figured out by one of the Yu-gi-oh characters, on duel island, and of course, made the connection to Labyrinth. (Forgive me for not knowing the Yu-gi-oh fandom, but I don't! No idea which character, which episode, or even if it was called Duel Island!) So, this is sort of like a disclaimer. Heh, in case you actually thought I could figure out something like that on my own. But I'm willing to bet that Sarah could, after a few years to mull it over...

Ehm... That being said, I'm a bit worried that this chapter might be too busy... If that makes sense. But we do get our first glimpse into Jareth's mind! I thought about writing it strictly from Sarah's point of view... But that would be kind of like telling only half the story, right?

* * *

Her eyes felt gummy when she opened them, some untold hours later, telling her right from the beginning that if she was at all smart, she'd roll over, and go back to sleep… Either that, or that she shouldn't sleep in a patch of dust in the middle of a windy labyrinth at all.

But this wasn't her first thought, on waking from a restless sleep, devoid of anything but dreams of more frustrating dead ends and boggy rivers… No, her first thought was a little slower forming, as she found herself on her back in the dirt, staring up, a little baffled, at an unending burnt gray sky, tinged with orange. It waited until she gradually remembered where she was. While she mulled over the idea that, yes, this was in fact, real. Odd.

Only then, after a rather sharp twist of her stomach, did her first _real_ thought of the day come into focus. _Mornings of gold, my ass._

With that enlightening observation made, she sat up, a bit slowly, more accustomed to a soft mattress than the hard ground, and tested out her limbs, one by one. She felt a little like she'd been dropped several feet, hit the ground, and _then_ fallen asleep. But it was nothing that couldn't be worked out… Even if her currently twisting stomach was demanding that she hurry. She'd convinced herself the night before, after perusing her small supply of edibles, that she could wait until morning to eat. Now, she was currently calling her former self, from the night before, an idiot.

Remembering her companion, she didn't just grab the bag all willy-nilly, but instead leaned over it, and with some care, pulled the flap open as gingerly as possible… And there she was. Little blue haired devil. Fast asleep, on a mattress made of the sandwich that Sarah herself currently wanted to eat.

Gently, the dark haired girl curled her fingers under the faery's sleeping body, and was surprised, briefly, at how very light the creature was in her hand… No more than a breath, really. And unexpectedly _warm_, for such a small thing. Like she was radiating heat as she slept. With her free hand, Sarah made a bed of her shirt, and tucked the faery neatly into place, expecting at any moment for the tiny stowaway to awaken in a tantrum, much to the grief of many nipped fingers… But she didn't.

It was only one sandwich, which, in retrospect, wasn't very good planning at all. She'd assumed from her last trip through the maze that her little quest would be over in less than a day… Now she was remembering, with a great deal less certainty than she'd faced her journey only the night before, what the goblin king had warned her. That she might _never_ get out.

But since thinking like that didn't do anyone any good, she stubbornly pushed the thought from her mind, and took a rather fierce bite of the yielding bread… Finding, much to her contrition, that those little faery footprints made the bread tasted more than a little like soot. But since she was eating for necessity, rather than enjoyment… In three bites the sandwich was gone, and Sarah was already regretting her haste. As the too large lumps settled into her throat, she remembered, irritably, that she no longer had anything to drink.

Frustrated, she grabbed for her thermos anyway, hoping to salvage a soothing drop or two… Only to pause, in bafflement, at the solidness of what should have been a light plastic container.

Unscrewing the top, slowly, she didn't know for certain what she expected to find inside… But somehow wasn't at all surprised to find it filled to the brim with clear, sparkling liquid, cold to the touch, just waiting for her to imbibe. What puzzlement there was however, was quickly replaced by irritation. Clearly Jareth didn't learn. She wasn't going to fall for his tricks, and… "And I don't need your help." She muttered under her breath, tipping the thick cylinder without much pause, and watching, with a sort of gut-twisting lurch, as the sweet-looking water ran uselessly into the dirt. And then it was gone, and of course, there was no going back…

Or at least, there shouldn't have been. As she tipped the empty container upright again though, a soft gurgling sound made itself known from within, and Sarah stared, in fascination, as the thermos seemed to fill itself from the bottom again, as if seeping from a wellspring beneath it.

Frustrated, intrigued, and wary, Sarah simply screwed the lid back on firmly, and slid the thermos back into the pack… Ignoring the further annoyance of her stomach, and resuming her earlier efforts to work out a stiff night's sleep.

She didn't know what she was waiting for, as much as anything she supposed that it could simply be for the faery to wake up, but once she was suitably de-ached, she propped her back against the heavy stone wall, gazed a bit tiredly to the skies, and debated her next logical course of action.

There was no way to plot the labyrinth… Not with markers or maps or strings… Not when it changed from one moment to the next to suit its own purposes, anyway. Of course, if it wanted to, the faery could help there… Flying up past the stone walls, giving an idea which path would actually offer progress further into the depths of the goblin king's kingdom. But trying to get anything but indifferent companionship from the creature seemed… somewhat less than likely.

Her eyes, still scanning the sky, for some trace of difference on the horizon, met, frustratingly, with nothing. "No bells," She intoned glumly, running her fingers carelessly through her dark brown mop, "No towers, no trees, no mountains… No stars, no sun, no moon! No landmarks above, everything always changing below… This is _impossible_." Her head dropped, forward, into her hand. "I need _help_." But from who? It had seemed like before, every time she was struggling, _someone_ popped out of nowhere to offer advice… But somehow, this time around, the natives weren't inclined to be so helpful.

In the end, she was forced to admit that there was no answer… None she could see, anyways. Until she found someone willing to offer more than the most immediate directions, she was forced to wander about aimlessly, and hope for the best. Even if the Labyrinth was already doing its best to work its way into her sanity. After all, she couldn't _keep_ ending up at the same damn dead end… right?

She rubbed her eyes, glanced at her sleeping companion, and wondered. The Labyrinth was shaped to the Goblin king's whims, right? What did that mean? If it was true, specifically, she never would have found the castle the first time. So presumably, Jareth wasn't off somewhere, purposely leading her in circles… Even if she wouldn't have put it past him. And that line of thought, almost unwilling, led to her next question…

What _was_ the goblin king doing?

----------------

The mulling, fussing, and endless squabbling was a long accustomed thing, as the droves of goblins, short and squat and as twisted to the wind in appearance as any number of trees, swarmed around him, too lost in their own internal conflicts between each other, to bear him so much as a second glance… So long as he wasn't physically lifting them and throwing them out of his way, of course.

Certainly, they did their best to avoid him, as he strode, purposefully, frustrated, from one end of the long hall to the other… If only because, when they did not, his heavy boots would often find some unprotected part to strike, step on, and kick, violently, out of the way. It rarely actually hurt them of course, goblins being made of fairly tough stuff… But when Jareth was in a mood like this, it was rarely wise to get in his way. One could never tell when he might truly snap.

Large, sparsely feathered birds watched from the rafters. Dark in color, with white heads, and red eyes, like cranberries, they followed his movements. Waiting, curiously. Eagerly, even. As he paced, hands clasped in fine white gloves clenching, unclenching. Displaying none of the cool, collected antagonist he'd offered the girl, out there in his maze. No, no, he was _angry_… Angry at having her so close. Her, who'd bested him, defied him and denied him, abandoned him, and never _once _looked back…

Didn't she understand? He would have given her the _world_… Forget the baby. The child, the one he was duty bound to make one of them. Forget destiny, and magic's greater than even he understood, demanding retribution… He would have given her _anything_.

Who knew, that four years, in an immortal lifetime, could be so endless? He didn't know if he loved her or hated her, wanted to keep her or destroy her… But he would _not_ be bested again. Four years. Four years of turning every decision, every mistake, over and over in his mind. Calculating. Recalculating. Rebuilding the Underground stone by stone. Preparing. Waiting. _Fearing_, she would simply forget, and not even care.

Solid, echoing footsteps. His head bowed, lips curled in a sneer, staring at nothing at all as he sought one end of the long hallway, then the other. Paintings, tapestries, watching him. The harpy-like things in the rafters, waiting. A crystal in his hand, turning, twisting, flying against his fingertips, floating and spinning as he gazed at the image within.

He'd made a peace offering. The gods only knew she didn't deserve it. Given her a gift, to make her journey a little easier. Just a little. And watched, with fury and fascination, as she'd poured it out. Not uttering a sound.

Mortals shouldn't be so frustrating… They were only human, after all. They shouldn't be able to defy fates older than the very Underground itself, shouldn't taunt and linger, hauntingly, in the memory of an immortal king. It was so routine… That was the frustration of it. One more young twit. One more babe. One more challenge, that should have fallen to _him_. Why, under the burning embers of the sky, was _she_ different?

That why, that single, echoing, inescapable question, refusing to let him rest. Why? Why _her_? What made _her_ so _special_?

Frustration, giving way to fascination. Giving way to obsession. Watching, again and again, as more ran his Labyrinth. As every one of them failed. As humanity's lost children became part of his world. Wondering why that time had been different. Unable to accept his defeat… Refusing to accept her dismissal. And waiting…

The wind blew her long hair recklessly about her face. Deep brown strands, licking relentlessly at her dusted skin. Like dark flames, haloing her, some ungodly angel. Her jaw set stubbornly, her lips pressed together in a defiant grimace. Never one to back down. Never one to bow. "Onwards and upwards, Sarah." The Goblin King murmured, fingers tightening on the orb, catching it, making it freeze and still. Caught on her proud, angry brown gaze.

She blamed _him_. That was the true irony of it. After the lengths he'd gone to, to make her remember, to bring her back down here, to keep her from forgetting, she blamed _him_.

Well, what did he expect? "We are not friends, Sarah." Very, very softly this time, as the crystal resumed its spinning, and the image in the crystal began moving once more. "I cannot imagine we ever will be… But this time I intend to see to making it very difficult for you to leave, once you find what you're looking for here." A tilt of his head, and a smirk. Watching her move with such haste, and no destination. Those two things, very nearly the definition of who she was. But far more softly, almost regretfully, "Have you forgotten everything? Do you even know what you're _doing _here anymore?"

A flip, a twist, and the crystal was lost to sight. His expression was grim, tight-lipped, but oddly determined. Let her find her dreams. Flitting, fleeting things. Let her find her, _friends_. For what good it would do her. Let her trace her way through his Labyrinth a dozen times, let her track him down to his castle once more… There was no child for her to claim this time. He had nothing left to lose.

She, meanwhile, had to decide for herself what she was _willing_ to lose. Because before this was over, one way or another, she would have _lost_…

But just what she was losing, would be up to her…

----------------

Whatever strength the Goblin King saw in his adversary, safe from the other side of his 'looking glass,' Sarah was just plain frustrated. Once more, nothing was as she'd left it. None of the same corridors, none of the same twists or turns… But she'd established a pattern. Sort of. She tried to remember how many turns right she'd made, and make, roughly, the same number of turns left. When she could, she went straight. Or what she thought of as straight. The laws of common sense had to have some hold over direction, even here in the Underground. That's what she told herself.

The faery had, some time since, woken, and was now flitting from place to place, looking more than anything, bored. Sarah suspected that didn't bode well for her, but for the moment she ignored it. A low, incessant sound, like falling water, that seemed to come from everywhere, and nowhere, was a far greater concern. She didn't know when it would actually show itself, or what obstacles it might offer… And if she was wary of the Goblin King's 'present,' she was still very, very thirsty.

Spinning and dipping to amuse itself, the faery drew Sarah's gaze, almost against her will. It was impossible _not _to stare at a faery, twisting and flitting there, not two feet from her. A _faery_. In light of all that had happened, it still took seeing her darting about there, close enough to touch, to convince Sarah that she hadn't completely lost her mind, or that this was all a dream. It couldn't be, after all. She was looking right _at_ the little thing.

Gradually the sound of running water became more pervasive, and Sarah turned her attention away from the tiny thing, suddenly wary of drop offs, or sink-holes, or… Who only knew what an irritated goblin king could dream up. But her searching gaze met nothing in the form of pitfalls… Or of explanations. Until, distractedly, she reached one hand out, running it along the near stone wall…

And yanked her touch back, cold and dripping. Quickly paying closer attention, she swore she saw the faintest of movement along the uneven stone… Like something just in front of her was rippling, _flowing _even. She quickly looked down, to see if there was any water pooled at the foot of the wall… But no. Dry as a bone. She even knelt down to feel the soil… Dust. Nothing but dust.

Slowly, an exploratory hand moved to brush the rocks before her, just lightly. Dry, again. Again, slowly, her hand moved upwards… And finally, her fingers found damp areas between the stone. Perplexed, she followed them, with eye and touch, until the moisture became more and more prominent… And finally, little trickles, rivulets of water, visible between the cracks. Flowing… up.

The realization took longer than it should have, her mind working against everything logic told her was possible, but then she was looking up, following the ever expanding flow with her eyes, as it pooled, not at the base of the stone wall, but near its height, far above her head… And didn't stop there.

One by one, perfect, flawless clear orbs, lifting from the wall, and continuing up, as individual drops. As if it slow motion, wobbling, becoming firm, and going up, up into the sky, until the miniscule droplets were lost to sight, one by one. Some no larger than a pinhead. Dancing against the angry sky, as far above, the dark swirling clouds sucked up the moisture greedily, and promised, in brief glints and subtle glows, to give it all back soon.

"A storm…" Caught in the beauty of the impossible thing before her, _this_ was what made its way through her confused mind, and settled as the most important part of what she was seeing. It was going to rain soon, and she had no shelter. Not even a blanket.

Still, her gaze lingered for a moment, on the tiny, crystalline drops, before she started moving forward again, more quickly, eager to find… something. Some way out of whatever was coming. Who only knew what rainstorms in the Labyrinth were like, after all? And still some part of her mind lingered on the impossible, beautiful sight…

Before she broke into a run. She was panicking, there was no other word for it. She'd bitten off more than she could chew, and for all her confidence, for all that beating the darn goblin king all those years ago had accomplished, she was suddenly very aware that she was in way over her head this time. This wasn't her world, it didn't obey any rules she understood, and there was no one to help her this time. And for every beautiful thing like rain falling _up_ to a violent, beautiful heaven… Was the threat of what soon would be coming back _down_.

But panic, even when it did manage to overwhelm her, only lasted a few minutes before a sudden, sharp sort of common sense kicked in. No, this was foolish. She was going to end up going in circles, and be right back where she'd started, again. _That_ was scarier than any damn rainstorm.

Stopping sharp in her tracks, she took a deep, measured breath, and looked around… Andes paused, and looked around again, because for the first time that she could ever remember when being in the Labyrinth, she would swear her surroundings looked familiar. _Old_ familiar. Like she'd been here, a long time before… Even if she couldn't put her finger quite on why.

She stopped, when it seemed too certain. Too convenient. To put it bluntly, too good to be true. Stock still, listening… And certain that somewhere, not far away, she could hear a low, bored humming. And for once, it wasn't coming from the faery. She advanced again, more cautiously, unwilling to believe that blind luck might have done more for her than all her effort and planning… And unwilling, even more, to believe that Jareth had left behind anything that she'd be able to use to find her way.

But she didn't slink around the corner… All right, she sort of 'peeked,' but moved far more quickly, almost in a sort of sudden fury, when she saw what was waiting on the other side. "_You_!" It was a curse, a sound of relief, an accusation, all at once… And then she remembered, and too late, turned back the way she'd come, only to find the opening she'd just used, gone. A quick glance told her that there were no other openings, either… Save for two tall doors, tall against the stone, with their odd little guardians to watch her.

Two above, two below, with no mind for laws of gravity, or blood rushing to their heads, holding a pair of shields that shouldn't, logically, actually have anything holding them up. The two below looked at each other, and snickered. The two above ducked behind their shields. Here it was again. Their little game, exactly as she'd left it.

"Fancy seeing you again." The one on the top left offered at last, poking his head out from behind his shield, watching her with sharp, curious eyes.

"I take it you must have chosen the right way, last time." The one on the right noted, baring all his sharp little teeth in an approximation of a smile.

"Of course, the Labyrinth's changed since then." Offered the one on the left, almost helpfully, casting a sly look at his, for lack of a better word, brother. "Can't just assume the old way out, is still the new way out!"

"Can't assume that at all." Agreed the other, eyes glinting like a puppy with a new toy. "You'll have to find the right way all over again. Of course, one thing hasn't changed… One of us always tells the truth…"

"And one of us," Finished the other, still smiling, "Always lies." A pause. "Oh, and you can only ask one question."

"Yes," Agreed the other, nodding, "That's the new bit. Only one question, and only from one of us." This seemed of particular importance. "So take your time, think it through…"

The smile Sarah offered the two was far less an approximation of a grin, and far more like a warning that either, or both, should look behind them. Slowly their looks of smug assurance faded, until they were just very _barely_ certain of themselves. Waiting. Exchanges glances, after a moment, as if to question the other on what had gone wrong with their game.

"Think it through?" Sarah prompted of the two, at last, still 'smiling.' "I've had four _years_ to think it through, thank you. I don't need to think about it now. _You_." She pointed to the one on the right, her finger within an inch of his nose, which he wrinkled, slowly, in unease. "You say that one of you tells the truth. And _you_," She turned to the other, any trace of a pleasant expression utterly vanishing, "You say that one of you only lies. But that's _impossible_."

For a moment, the two just considered her, perplexed. "It is?" The one on the left asked finally, clearly not sure how she could, well, be so sure. The one on the right quickly prompted in his two bits, just as puzzledly, asking, "How?"

Her anger faded, slowly. She'd waited all this time to call them on it, and well, she might as well enjoy it, but it didn't really solve any of the problems she was currently facing. "If one of you says they tell the truth," She explained, a bit wearily, "And one of you says you only lie, then either both of you are telling the truth, which you can't be, because one of you says you always lie, or you're both lying, which also can't be true, also because one of you says you always lie, and that would be the truth, not a lie, which would mean the other was lying, when they said that one of you always tells the truth."

For a moment, the two just stared at her, trying to understand her convoluted logic, before, slowly, the one on the left prompted, "So… What does that mean?"

"It means," Sarah explained, growing slightly more frustrated again, "That either one of you is liable to lie or tell the truth as you see fit, and even if one of you always tells the truth, or the other one of you just always lies, or either one of you sometimes tell the truth or sometimes lie… I can't trust any answer that I get out of either one of you!"

As the two looked at each other, again, and all four began cackling at their little trick, she leaned back against the wall, and stared at the only two ways out, neither of which made any sense to risk. "And the fact of the matter is, that it _doesn't_ really matter, because both of those doors probably lead to traps." She added, under her breath. A sort of final, _because I say so_. Not that it won her anything.

A sudden, slow clapping drew her attention, one hand against the other, methodical, almost mocking. "My word, Sarah." The goblin king noted, clearly enjoying the little show she'd just offered. "It did take you some time, didn't it?"

"Jareth." She wasn't irritated this time, so much as exasperated. "What do you want this time?"

Smoothly, the goblin king straightened up from his place against the far side of her little prison… To reveal a small round wooden door that hadn't been there a moment before. Her eyes fixed on it, hopefully, then quickly looked away. As if she didn't want him to see how desperately she needed that way out, that he'd probably provided in the first place. He was still watching her, a trace less amused now, as she met his gaze again. "I take it you didn't like my _gift_." He noted, cutting the last word sharply.

"I'm really supposed to trust _you_?" Sarah pointed out, just a little wearily. "Goblin King…"

"Jareth." He interrupted smoothly, without missing a beat.

She paused, and looked at him. He smiled, slouched over again, tugging at one sleeve. The utter picture of harmlessness. Except of course, for some quality to his eyes like a hunting beast. "Jareth." She agreed a moment later, like this was some great concession. "Why exactly should I believe that anything's changed from the last time I was here?"

"Everything's _changed_, Sarah." He dismissed, rather condescendingly, with a little wave of his hand. "Or rather, it's in finding what's remained the same, that you'll realized _you've_ changed. But me?" He smiled, a sharp, fascinating smile. "I rarely change for anyone. So the question is, not whether you can trust me now, but why on earth you had some idea that you couldn't trust me before?"

Sarah closed her eyes for a long, measured breath, noting simply to herself, "More riddles. Wonderful. I do _so_ love riddles."

"Then here's one for you, Sarah," She started at the close proximity of his voice, jumping backwards a little, and finding there was nowhere to jump backwards to. He was there, his face inches from her, his eyes boring, like some unwavering bird of prey's, into her own. His next words were, in the sudden unnervedness of being only a breath from him, almost lost on her, "Why is it, when I've just shown you the way out, are you more intent on arguing my intentions, than in finding your dreams?"

For a moment she could only stand there, caught by those eyes, one that seemed to see everything, one that seemed to gaze deeper into her own soul than even she'd ever dared to see… Him, firmly in her personal space, one arm reaching past her, to brace himself against the stone. Waiting, as his eyes dropped, without a further word, to her lips, for her answer.

"Why are you helping me?" She finally whispered back… All she had strength to summon…

Only for the Goblin King to cock one eyebrow, purse his mouth in a thoughtful little moue, and pull away from where he was more or less pinning her to his Labyrinth wall, letting her take her first real breath since he'd claimed the distance between them. "Well, that _would_ be the riddle then, wouldn't it?" He mused, tilting his head at her in a rather owlish way, before he smiled, and took another step back, almost generously, a yielding of distance. "Of course, the obvious answer being too obvious, I suppose…"

Sarah stared at him, distrustfully, but more aware than ever that she did need help, _someone's_ help, maybe even Jareth's, if she was going to make it through this place a second time. "What answer would that be?" She asked at last, careful to keep her tone deliberately without confrontation… Just in case he should get it into his head that he actually _did_ want to help her… Not that she expected him to.

That little play of amusement across his lips, his eyes, somehow, growing cold, even as his voice turned gentle. "Why, that I _want_ you to find your dreams, Sarah." He murmured smoothly. "Why do you think I brought you back here in the first place?"

"No…" Sarah denied, after a moment of just staring at him, refusing to believe it was true. "You can't be trying to be nice to me now, you just want…" And here of course she failed.

Not entirely because Jareth chose that moment to press his own line of questioning forward. "What, Sarah?" He mused, moving back towards her, and making her, with the sudden sense of being trapped, move quickly away. "No, Sarah, by all means, tell me what it is that I want… Clearly you know so much better than I."

When she didn't answer, he continued to follow her, as she retreated, until once more, she had nowhere to go… But then, once he had her trapped, her came no further, not claiming her last bit of safety this time. "Or shall _I_ tell you what I want, Sarah?" He hissed softly, his voice just a breath, not enough to be a threat, but enough to wiggle under her skin, and give her goosebumps.

She swallowed, hard. "What do you want?" She echoed, her own words just a whisper.

"_I,_ want you_, Sarah_…" His voice almost a purr, as he dropped this simple innuendo… only to go on, something like anger rising in his tone, though never enough to make his voice rise even a little. "I want you to know what you could have had. To know what you gave up." His eyes were brittle chips of ice. "I want you to know the true consequences of your actions… To learn _why _you call me the villain… And how much that little vow of yours really means, when _you're _the one poised to lose _everything_."

All this said though, leaving her shaking with anger, fear, confusion, and trying not to show it… Something changed in the goblin king's features. He looked defiant still, angry- But something else. Something that, once again, she couldn't put her finger on. Like there was something about this whole thing that he still hadn't made his peace with, and it wasn't resentment or pride, or anything like that. And it was only there for a moment, a breath, and then… He looked away.

"When you ask for help, Sarah… And you _will_ ask…" His voice softer, almost consenting, as he twisted his hand, and a crystal appeared at his fingertips… Serving no purpose for now, it seemed, but giving him something to look at, other than her, "You may find yourself surprised at just how willing I am to come to your assistance. But do not mistake that for a moment, by thinking we are… friends."

What in the world was she supposed to say to that? "I have enough friends." She whispered finally, still angry, even if he wasn't… Angry, and worried about what the goblin king had hinted at, even if she didn't know whether or not to believe him.

"Yes," Jareth mused, still watching the crystal, "I suppose you _should _find them then." He lifted his gaze, and his hand, pointing one finger, and swinging it sharply from side to side, with a small, utterly humorless smile. "_Tick. Tock._"

Sarah ignored him, red in the face, and moved right past the Goblin King without another glance, grabbing for the door in the wall, and swinging it open… Not _giving _him the chance to pull one of his dramatic vanishing acts, but just turning her back on him, crouching to fit through the door, and slamming it shut, defiantly, behind her. She needed help, yes, she could admit that. Just not _his _help.

And yet somehow, something in his words, or rather, maybe something in what he _hadn't_ said… For the first time, Sarah was filled not simply with the sense of immediate danger, but something deeper. Something that creeped to her bones. And she wondered, for the first time, what it was that Jareth expected her to find, that made him so willing to _help her…_

_----------------_


	5. Sheer Stubborness

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

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I'm hoping that there is not a marked difference between the first part of this chapter and the second... I've been feeling a little odd lately, and well, the two halves were written a couple weeks apart, what with battling first writer's block, then a simply fascinating Persona 3, (I stand that PS2 is still as good as it ever was.)

And then there is my concern that the second half may have been influenced the tiniest bit by the fact that I watched Alice in Wonderland twice between writing the first half and the second, though I don't think you'd have noticed if I hadn't said anything. And anyway, that was well over a week ago, and doesn't at all explain my rather odd current mood... That might be put down a bit more to the fact that I'm been sleeping rather strangely... As in a lot, and having the oddest dreams.

As Alice herself would say... I'm afraid I'm not myself today. But I still like the way this chapter has come out. It may be influenced by the movies I've been watching, Alice only one among them, but it isn't suited for them at all. Oh no, this is very much the Labyrinth, I assure you... Still, if I need to rewrite this, do tell me.

I am sorry for the long delay...

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In the few minutes that had to have passed since she'd left Jareth in the dead end of his own design, the weather had changed, sharply. The clouds, merely roiling in warning before, were now crashing, lifting, and exploding across the sky like an angry surf, while the air around her grew dangerously hot and still, making it hard to breathe, and even harder to continue at the pace she'd been traveling, in the short time since leaving him.

Stopping, at one turn no different than the last ten, she wiped her hand across her forehead, and drew it away, slick with sweat already. It felt as if some angry god were breathing moist, fetid breath down on her, and she swore she could feel his eyes as she tried, stubbornly, not to look at the ominous movements of an insane sky, moving in a way no sky should.

A sound, a low rumble that began, oddly enough, below her feet, and moved through her bones, before it burst into an angry roar of thunder, making her hair stand on end, and her throat, oddly enough in the thick humidity, dry.

Shelter of some kind, any kind. She didn't look at the sky because she was afraid to look at the sky. Because a sky like that had only ever meant one thing in her world… And pictures of what had been left after were more than she'd ever wanted to see of them. She had no desire to see one firsthand. Not without even so much as a hole to hide in.

A low, worried murmur, almost beside her ear. Her head jerked, slightly, in surprise, before realizing it was the blue-haired sprite who'd offered the utterance, having at some point come to a rest on her shoulder, without her even realizing it. If anything, the faery looked more worried than she did, she reflected, not sparing herself the chance to consider this for long, for fear of what she might realize. After all, it had presumably seen such storms before…

The first, heavy drop, hit her squarely on the forehead, and slid down the bridge of her nose, unnervingly warm, like bathwater, against her skin. She wiped it away, instinctively, with her thumb… And paused at the oily feel of the water. Not greasy, but slick, like sweat or tears… Without thinking, she placed the digit in her mouth, and immediately made a twisted face, spitting, hard, to the side. Bitter and salty. So much for the coming rains offering even the respite of something to drink…

Whether or not the next drop to make itself known actually hit the little faery on her shoulder, it still made a little, furious sound of temper, like this rain was nothing less than a personal slight inflicted on her by the powers that be… And then the next thing Sarah knew, she had flitted up from the girl's shoulder, and darted forward, at some speed, almost vanishing around the next turn of the maze before Sarah could even take in her intentions.

"Hey!" Startled, Sarah didn't really think, she just started after the little streak of blue, not really believing she knew where she was going, so much as simply, sharply, not wanting to lose what little company she had. Nothing she could think of would be worse than weathering the coming storm, in this weird and twisted little world, alone.

Barely keeping the bobbing blue head in sight, Sarah paid little attention to her surroundings, and less attention to where she was going, stumbling over debris in her path, and still not giving it so much as a second glance. Lips firmed, stubbornly, as her brows creased with worry… Refusing to lose sight of the closest thing she currently had to a friend in a situation that was quickly threatening what remained of her sanity.

Losing her balance as she rounded one final corner, she fell hard, and naturally, hit the same place she'd managed to bruise on first entering the Underground, letting loose a little cry of frustration and pain, only compounded by the fact that her tiny prey was no longer in sight.

Suddenly feeling very close to tears, Sarah drew her leg up, slowly, and bit her lip, hard… Sitting on the cracked stone with nowhere to hide from the oncoming storm, and no one left to keep her company. She bowed her head, and felt the first angry, helpless sob, lurch its way up from her chest… And refused to let it escape. Instead it settled there, like something not quite chewed, caught halfway down. The hastily chewed peanut butter sandwich of emotions.

More rain began to fall, not hard, not yet, but every drop felt like a little blow of defeat, and at the moment, she didn't even have the will to lift her head, and face it straight on. Her fingers curled around a scraggly stand of weeds, just next to her…

And out of nowhere, a low, quizzical sound, making her blink, and finally look up, to see a very small figure, crouching in the dust before her, its little blue head tilted just so to one side… The sound was repeated, and the faery flitted its wings, watching her, as the drops began to come down more heavily, very narrowly missing her small frame with each steadily strengthening blow.

Sniffling against the tears she refused to let fall, Sarah reached out, slowly, and took the faery in the cup of her hand, prodding her gently with one finger to climb up, before covering her fragile frame bravely with the other. One drop would soak her… One more, anyway. And she already looked positively forlorn, tiny glistening beads of wetness clinging to her small frame, her wings drooping…

"We'll find someplace to get out of this." Sarah heard herself tell her small friend without much conviction, finally lifting her head, and taking a much needed look around. She didn't believe it herself of course, but for one of their sake's at least, she had to _try_…

They were surrounded with mats of dead brush, blackened thorns, and dried, withered vines, covering nearly every face of what once might have been a beautiful garden. A dried fountain rose in the center, browned with dust and grime, a little sculpted gnome spilling forth an empty bowl to offer a large, granite basin, choked with similar wasted growth. She felt a brief moment of irrational anger, towards a goblin king that would just let what must have been a beautiful place wither away like this-

And then, impossibility of impossibilities, she saw what looked like a small altar, or what must have once been a carefully sculpted shrine, with a slender stone woman dressed all in veils, now broken at the waist and falling forward… To reveal a small, hollow entrance behind her, into what looked like some sort of natural depression in the stone.

Quickly excited, Sarah hurried forward, placing the faery on a little outcropping of stone, and considered the situation. The broken piece of statue was much too large to lift herself, and the hollow, not big enough for her to squeeze into, with the broken bit still blocking it… What she needed was some sort of, tool.

Wiping her hands on her jeans nervously, she cast a look around the dead garden again, this time with far more calculating an eye. "A thick branch or…" Some sort of lever, wood or stone, who cared? She finally settled on a knotted length of branch currently resting at the small gnome's feet, and, with the storm opening up around her more by the moment, the sky beginning to turn frightening shades of purple and yellow, she jammed the branch against the broken base of the statue, sliding the far end up the part she needed to push, and heaved, downward, with all her strength.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen… Except that the wind finally began to build, grabbing the girl with greedy fingers, as flashes of violent light began leaping from its safe nest in the heavens, to strike somewhere, loudly, in the distance, with a sound like shattering stone. Then, miraculously, as she pushed with all her strength, heaving her weight, solidly, against a branch that looked like it might snap at any moment, there was a sudden, low grating sound…

And then it seemed like everything happened at once. The shrine's figure, with an abruptness that was too quick for her to readjust her weight, slid solid to the side, with a sharp, final sound… And the storm truly began. Wasting no time on a second glance around as the flashes of light now began to dance around her with dizzying proximity, Sarah tucked her bag under one arm, grasped the pixie firmly in her fist with the other, and half dove, half wiggled, into the promising gap in the stone… Shelter.

It wasn't until she'd wormed her way through several feet of the jagged crevice that her original sense of panic wore off, and a new one set in… It was too close, too tight, she'd never get out! But with the dogged stubbornness of one well used to panic doing its best to get the better of her, she pushed it away until she was in a better position to deal with it- i.e., never- and continued clawing her way forward with her free hand, and both her elbows…

Until the tunnel gave way, abruptly, to a sharp drop to little more than a foot, and she was left in a hollow maybe twice the size of her body… Trapped, in complete darkness, and a sudden, unnerving stillness, that was already doing its best to eat its way under her skin…

And only then did she realize that the little faery hadn't bitten her once. Quickly opening her hand, she tried, in the darkness, to give the little thing an experimental prod, and was rewarded by a small, irritable sound, as the tiny creature, apparently as blind in the darkness as she was, slowly did its best to feel its way up the length of her arm.

Sagging back, slowly, against the uneven stone, Sarah felt it, there in the pitch beneath the earth… Felt as her sense of calm and sanity settled back into place, never mind that she was currently little better than buried alive, held fastly from threatening madness by a pair of tiny faery hands.

Sarah closed her eyes… There was no use having them open, after all, and listened, very hard. If she did, she could just hear the crack and roar and steady patter of the storm, now far beyond sight… The steady, almost drum-like patter of the rain, driven, furiously, from its place in the heavens. And she focused, very hard, on the movements of the faery as it moved its way across her still form, finally reaching a place to hide, beneath the tangled tresses of her hair, and make itself comfortable.

She didn't say a word. She had the sense that, if she did, the silence would become overwhelming, and she wouldn't be able to convince herself to wait for the storm to end. She'd just worm her way right back out there, and… who knew. Get hit by lightning, most likely.

But what she was thinking, was… _You need a name, little one_. Never mind that the faery almost certainly had a name, and just wasn't telling, something had happened in the last few minutes, something had changed, and while she couldn't put her finger on just why it had happened when it did, one thing was clear… They were in this together now. Trying to understand what had convinced the little faery of this was useless, but somehow, now, they were friends. And friends needed names.

So she sat there silently, with a murmuring, fussing little blue haired imp in the darkness, the storm raging for whatever reason storms raged, just beyond their secluded little hideaway, and thought of names.

* * *

Somehow, there in the impossible darkness, Sarah had fallen asleep, lulled by the constant low, musical fussing of the little blue faery. She wasn't even aware of it, and it wasn't like conventional sleep, with weird reflections of waking worry, recast to her in dreams…

No, she was asleep, and yet she was very aware that she was there in that hole, thinking of names and mazes and confusing goblin kings, and the utter unfairness of things in a world suited to their whims. Very lucid, very aware, and yet at the same time, very asleep.

Or at least she would have supposed that, from the way she could no longer twitch so much as a finger… And yet somehow she didn't find this fact any more frightening than, say… Well, oddly, she couldn't think of anything. For the moment at least, nothing frightened her… She was safe. Deeply, utterly safe, in a way that left no temptation to return to awakeness… It never occurred to her that she was simply running out of air, and in her safe little hidey-hole, as close to being dead as anything in the Labyrinth had offered yet.

It was just beginning to occur to her mind to think this though, when a soft coolness kissed the heated flush of her cheeks, and through some small effort, Sarah opened her eyes, and considered the nothing between her and the outside world. The caress was repeated, a breeze from outside, and she took in a slow, deep breath, blinking, like she really was waking from sleep, which she supposed she was. She had the oddest sense though, of some taunting murmur in the back of her mind, like some niggle of thought…

_I can't leave you alone for a moment, can I, Sarah? With everything I can think of to throw at you, __you're__ just going to go to sleep, and not wake up. You really are the most stubborn person I've ever known. You'll just do anything to annoy me._

Nonsense, half awake, dreaming nonsense. Sarah yawned, felt around sleepily for her small companion, and then, with a determined resolve not to panic, found the place she'd squirmed her way in through, and began the nerve wracking task of finding her way back out. The darkness was though, by this point, little more than an annoyance, surprising the girl to no end as she struggled through tight fits, getting stuck more than once, and simply, patiently, extracting herself, and moving forward again. Beckoned, always, by cool breezes, and the faint, familiar scent of expensive musk…

When she finally made her way back out of the hole, _that _was when panic gripped her, as she realized both that she should by all rights have been terrified, trapped in the darkness… And almost realized, briefly, how close she'd come to never coming back out at all.

And both feelings, in the end, fled her almost as quickly as they'd come, and she took in her first real breath since hiding from the storm… And looked around in amazement. As accustomed as she was to the enchanted labyrinth changing and shifting every time she took her eyes off it, somehow she just was not ready for this, if only because, structurally, nothing had changed. There was the fountain, with the little gnome. Everything was still overgrown. Cracked stone still lay beneath her, and the shrine stood broken just behind, as she emerged the rest of the way…

The difference was, this garden was _alive_. On blackened, thorny bushes, rested blossoms the size of her head, many-petalled, flooding her senses with candy-spun sweetness. On slender, wrapping vines, trumpet-like honeysuckles, all of creamy white, lifting their nectar heavy heads to tempt with golden flashes within. Sharp, jutting bushes, now carpeted with fine, purple leaves, smelling oddly of jasmine, tiny white flowers hidden in their depths…

And the fountain, flowing, filling the air with the smell of sweet water, thick with lily pads and lotuses, each gleaming like some wet, precious jewel, in the light of a fading sky.

Sarah just sat there, her bag in her lap, and took it all in, breathing in the myriad of smells like she'd never properly used the sense before, and waited… for something. For the dream to end, to wake up, and have all this be illusion, something! Tiny beads of wetness clung to everything, like a dusting of frost, or diamonds, and she touched the damp stone with hesitant fingers, bringing the moisture to her lips… And it was _sweet_.

It was a long time before she thought to get to her feet. In fact, the faery, who still didn't have a name, seemed to tire of sitting in dumbfounded amazement long before she did, flitting over to sit on one of the thick green growths in the fountain, and dipping her head to drink. That just about cinched it, Sarah thought to herself, if admittedly not in so many words, if _she_ could drink, then Sarah probably could too. Or at least she was a lot more willing to trust that water, than any gift from any goblin king.

And she was thirsty, so in all sense she should have gotten up, joined her friend at the fountain… Instead she just sat there, adjusting her knees after a moment, to get more comfortable, and looked around herself. If she caught the right part of the plants at the right moment, she could actually _see_ them growing… Tiny tendrils of green, hooking into broken pieces of stone, climbing, foothold by foothold, across the worn face of the wall. From time to time a tiny bud, slowing trying to open, trembling under the strain… She just, didn't want to look away. Not yet.

_I nearly forgot. Getting to come back here is one of the reasons I'm fighting so hard. How did I forget?_ She lifted her head, after an extended silence, and considered the place that all those blossoms and tendrils reached for, an unending, featureless sky…

Except, it wasn't featureless, exactly. It rippled. Like the way currents of air rippled off hot asphalt, but a mile away, weaving against her vision in a dizzying pattern, daring her to hold her gaze… Hard to look at. Like it wasn't really there at all, or like it was changing what it was as she watched. She could almost imagine great, flowing shapes, beyond the visible spectrum of the sky, twisting just beyond sight, in some vast hidden tapestry. And even though she couldn't see it, as long as she looked at that sky, she couldn't quite put the image out of her mind…

_I almost forgot that this place was beautiful_. It seemed like she was always fighting so hard, the whole time she was in these twisty stone paths, so she couldn't really be blamed if she forgot to enjoy the scenery while she was there. But at the moment… It felt as if there was no rush. As if the whole Underground was telling her to take her time, and not hurry… Her dreams would be there when she found them.

It had to be a trick. It was always a trick… wasn't it?

If the Labyrinth was shaped to his whims, the way he said, then it was kind of hard to believe that the goblin king could create something so beautiful.

Sarah turned her eyes to the fountain again, a flicker of interest in their soft depths as she considered the blue headed bit of trouble, now stretched out lazily on one of the floating rafts of green, and soaking in warmth from the sunless sky. She certainly seemed in no hurry… It was a sort of, after the storm feeling. Like the whole world could wait a while before it had to start breathing again.

"I think I'm going to learn to like the storms, in the Labyrinth." Sarah mused to herself, finally getting unsteadily to her feet- her limbs still not quite accustomed to obeying her, after their long stillness in the cramped cave.

Of course, it wasn't as if she didn't usually enjoy storms… It was just that, here, as with everything else about this place… They were just so much _more_.

Shrugging, in the way only someone quickly becoming reaccustomed to the impossible could, she lifted her backpack again, and moved to the pretty stone fountain, dropping the bag across her lap as she made herself comfortable again on its edge. Of course now, the fountain was more than just water and pretty plants, it also held tiny, spinning, jewel-like insects, all lanky and iridescent, skimming along happily just below the surface… She really wouldn't have expected something as common as fish. Not in the Goblin King's Labyrinth.

The Goblin King. Damn that she kept thinking of him. Even if it was all his fault, she couldn't even be mad about it anymore. Not in the Underground after a storm. She dipped her fingers into the water, startlingly ice cold, after the heavy hot rain that had fallen, and clear as crystal as her fingers moved through it. Pulling her bag more tightly to her chest, she leaned down, brushing her lips electrically against its surface, and tasted it… Really the only think she'd ever tasted in the Underground, other than that damned foul peach.

…And she'd always heard of water being described as sweet in all those stories she'd read all her life… But this was the first time she'd ever actually tasted it. Water that could actually be called sweet, that is. Not sugary, or syrupy, or fruity… Just so clean and pure that it tasted of nothing but itself, and so somehow sweet.

It did something to her head, a little… The way stepping off a cliff, in a dream, and finding she didn't have to fall, might have done something to her. She felt, oddly daring. And curious. And found herself pulling her bag open, and drawing out the cheap plastic thermos before she could really convince herself not to, twisting it open, and considering the Goblin King's gift within.

Well… it was just water. Right? And since she couldn't stay in this wonderful little garden if she was actually going to find what she was looking for, she might as well find out now whether or not she could trust it.

Thinking this, she took a drink… A big drink. Half expecting to choke on it. Expecting it to be bitter, or burning, or sickeningly too strong to bear… Or at least to taste like the water in the fountain, sweet, without being sweet. Instead, it just tasted like water. She was almost disappointed. She gave the thermos a little, dubious glance, watching as it bubbled up all clear and glass like again, to refill the part she'd drank from… Then gave up trying to figure the goblin king out, closed the thermos, and shoved it back in her backpack.

If he was trying to impress her, he was going to have to do better than that. But at least now she had water… And didn't have to worry about ending up in some crystalline peach spun dream again if she drank it. That was actually a bit of a step up, as far as Jareth's gifts went, if she thought about it…

She cast a glance at her little companion… Intending to tell her that it was time to go now, and they'd wasted enough of the day, or whatever it was, lying around waiting for the storm to end… But the little faery just looked so happy, she really didn't have the heart to shake her out of this good mood. She wondered, briefly, if a faery had ever gotten this deeply into the Labyrinth before, what with Hoggle guarding the entrance so determinedly all this time… The little creature seemed to think that this was paradise.

Huh. Paradise. Well, in her opinion, the Labyrinth was anything but, but… This garden was rather pretty.

"I'm going soft." She determined, getting more comfortable on the little stone wall, rather than rising, and tipping her face back to regard the sky again. Yes, it hurt her eyes, in that way that dizzying movements did, if she stared too long… The way staring straight up at a sky filled with stars made her dizzy when she was very small… But just like that, she found herself looking back again, again.

Nothing was real in the Labyrinth, maybe. If everything was formed to the Goblin King's whims, after all, how could anything be real? Just, shaped. And maybe he didn't bother shaping the sky. Maybe that, up there, was all there really was, of the whole Underground, without a Goblin King to shape it.

Or maybe she was spending too much time alone, without a rational mind to bounce these increasingly strange ideas off of, in a magical faery-tale land that had no real shape to it at all, save in the mind of a mad sorcerer king… and was beginning to lose her mind. Never mind her dreams. Never mind any possibility of returning to her family, her friends…

That thought sobered her, more than a little. She was letting herself get distracted. Letting this place get under her skin. Just like that time at the masquerade… Forgetting what she was here for.

"Time to go." She muttered shortly, getting to her feet in one, less than smooth motion, and for some completely senseless reason, actually expecting her little faery companion to listen.

_She_, however, just lifted her head, gave Sarah a short, bemused look, made that rude gesture with her arm again, and lay back down. Whatever distance she'd offered just before the little tantrum of the heavens, now totally reclaimed.

Sarah had no patience. She grabbed a sock from her bag, used it as a glove to grab the bitey little… biter, and dropped the whole thing as gently as possible back into the bag, half expecting it to explode in outrage the moment she let go. Instead, the little sprite-like creature just gave her dirty look, leaving no doubt what she'd do to the girl if she was simply big enough, and vanished back into the depths of the bag… presumably to sulk.

And if Sarah felt just a little bit guilty, well, she wasn't about to admit it, now that she'd gotten her way. Besides, there were more important things to be concerned with… Like the fact that she'd managed, over the course of the past few hours, to completely lose all sense of direction, and aside from the fact that at the moment there was only one path to take, she was at a complete loss as to which way to go, once she was beyond that.

"Piece of cake." She grumbled under her breath bitterly, giving one last, defiant look at the unsteady sky above, before stubbornly determining to ignore its existence. And the faery twittered away angrily somewhere in the muffled cloth, and Sarah left the little garden with its enticing scents and sweet water behind, and resolved, in the last little bit of her mind determined to hold onto its concept of reality versus fantasy, that she was not going to let this place get to her again. She was here to find her dreams, that was the end of it. That was the _only _reason she was here.

If this place had its way after all, she'd never leave…


	6. Not What It Seeming

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

Hmm. Um. Four weeks, huh? Sorry... Hope this makes up for it. Also, no lines? What's up with that? I put them there for a reason, doggone it...

Jareth didn't know whether to feel frustration, a sort of bitter amusement, or an odd sort of vindication, over the miniature version of the stubborn human girl, trapped in one endless moment in the gleaming, flawless orb. Maybe, disappointment. Or annoyance, because he'd gone to some trouble to see that this particular outcome was _avoided_.

"Of all people, Sarah," He murmured under his breath simply, his eyes narrowed just so with scorn, "I would expect you to know your faery tales well enough to avoid doing something so utterly _stupid_." His thumb caressed the surface of the unbroken bubble, regarding her, without another word, for upwards of a minute, before with a sigh, flipping the orb into the air with a little twist of his wrist, and watching it fade to nothing, her smaller form remaining suspended, for one instant after it was gone, her lips pressed, oh so prettily, to the surface of the wakened fountain.

And of course, now _he_ had to deal with the consequences. Never mind that he'd given her a perfectly acceptable way around all those nagging little rules of the Underground… No, not Sarah. She never made things easy for him.

All around him, his particular band of favorites, a position of questionable distinction at the best of times, heavily silent as they waited for him to explode, two dozen pairs of glinting, beady eyes, watching him worriedly… Ready at a moment, or an uttered command, to either laugh… or get the hell out of the way. "Damn that girl." Was all Jareth offered, deciding that, at the moment, the proper response was annoyance… And anything further could wait.

"You!" He pointed at one little mop of hair and red eyes, who flinched, less at the prospect of bodily harm, than the sheer displeasure in his master's tone. "You will fetch me the tome of bindings… Volume… I don't know, seventeen? Addendum…" His fingers flicked, as if indifferently, as he wracked his brain, ineffectually, to remember the right one. "Oh, I don't care. The one about mortal imbuing of things they should bloody hell know to leave well enough alone."

The squat thing, looking a bit like one of those tiny dogs that fancy ladies carried around in their purses, didn't move straight away, looking up at him dubiously instead. The tome in question could be in any one of nearly a hundred volumes… And he damn well knew it. "Um, which one…?"

"I don't know! Search through all of them until you find it! Do I look like a care? And wait!" A quickly colder demeanor towards the runt of his little group, as he pointed at him with a frown, seeming to quickly forget one concern for another. "Wash those grubby littler hands of yours first. I don't need smudgy goblin fingerprints dirtying up my pages."

Swallowing, the squat thing nodded, and quickly darted from the room, not complaining about the impossible demand- Finding the law that is, not washing its hands- Well used to far more outrageous ones… And well aware that His Majesty had been in a particularly foul mood for the past few years.

This done, Jareth turned his gaze, absently, into the distance, shaking his head with a bit of a mildly bemused air. "Sarah, Sarah, _Sarah_…" He murmured, as if addressing the girl herself. "Barely here more than a day, and already tempting some of the Labyrinth's oldest magic's… As if it doesn't already have enough reason to be annoyed with you." A wave of his hand, briefly, signifying the uselessness of it. "Why not just pluck a bloody pomegranate, while you're at it?"

Well, it was just water, in theory… Of course anything born of the Labyrinths magic's held, well, a good deal of _magic_ to it… Water no exception. And after he'd gone through all the trouble of bringing in water from her world to circumvent this little problem… Well, it wasn't exactly surprising that she didn't trust him…

Regardless, what was done was done, and it wasn't as if it actually had to be dealt with just yet, anyhow. There was still her finding those friends of hers… Hog's-head, or whatever that miserable dwarf's name was… And then of course there were those ever so precious dreams of hers… She was never going to figure that one out, at this pace.

Actually, and he just now turned this idea over in his head, slowly, as he got used to the feel of it, this might be a _good_ thing. Nothing like a good solid blow to the head, after all, to convince someone that the hammer that hit them was real. And the girl did still seem to need a good deal of convincing… That was the whole _point_, wasn't it?

He'd come to a complete stop now, head slightly bowed with thought, one finger curled, as if to draw some nagging idea from his brain. "Perhaps…" He murmured slowly, tasting the word, as much as anything, to find how true it sounded, "Perhaps I can use this."

After a moment more, his head lifted, and he smiled… It was a smile that several of his more long term companions shied away from, and others returned, albeit nervously. "Yes, yes, of course I can!" He grinned at them all openly now, laughing shortly, and, well trained, his little handpicked group of cohorts laughed along enthusiastically, utterly in the dark as to what the joke was.

But never mind them… Yes, yes he could use this. He was the goblin king, wasn't he? This was _his_ Labyrinth, _his_ world, and he'd be damned if he couldn't find a way to use its rules to finally get what _he _wanted out of this whole mess… Never mind that he still wasn't quite certain yet himself just what it _was _he wanted.

Sarah… From the beginning, always playing around with the rules to make them fit her… Well, some rules couldn't be broken. _Or_ bent. No, she most likely wasn't _confined_ to the Underground, if he recalled the addendum correctly… He'd have to check to make certain… But there would have to be, consequences. Compensation.

_Compromise._

And compromise was a word the goblin king knew well, even if it only meant knowing how to extract such compromises from other people, and not the other way around. In the end though, all this surmising really only amounted to one thing, in the goblin king's mind. It was time to tell Sarah the _truth_.

Or at least, the part of it that would turn _this_ little coil, the way he needed…

It was getting better. By no fathomable explanation she could have given, she just felt _better._ Like her goal, -_whatever the hell it may be-_ was waiting for her, just around the next corner. Or maybe the next. Or even the one after that. The point was, that she was now certain she would find it. It was amazing what relief from a truly desperate situation, and something cold to drink, could do to clear a person's mind.

Sometimes she watched her feet, forming precise little impressions in the dust, or else not a mark at all upon the stone, but mostly, she listened. She didn't think she'd ever noticed that particular brand of _sound_ that the Labyrinth offered before… Sort of a low, musical, breathy sort, as the air wound its way over stone and through narrow opening, and well, it was sort of, pretty. And she heard insects. Sure, she'd met a worm once there, during her last visit, but he'd been, sort of a goblin, not a real insect at all. But these little trills were definitely insect song…

And okay, so there were no birds, other than the odd, large black chicken that crossed her path- Which she couldn't decide was more like a black cat crossing her path, or a chicken crossing the road- But the Underground definitely had it's own sort of hum… Though in reality, that low, sort of soothing part of the song didn't have any source she could determine.

She was still trying to put her finger on just what it was, when she paused at the sight of a violently red bloom, rather like a very wide morning glory, with a band of yellow around a heart of deep purple, the whole thing, stretched like a wing membrane over fragile bones, and rather, animate, for a flower. It looked rather like it was breathing… It's stretched, single petal, opening and closing, ever so subtly, as it twisted on its neck, taking in everything around it with an open, eyeless face… And finally seeming to settle on her, with something of a puzzled curiosity- Or would, if flowers possessed such things. Flaring, just so.

Sarah wasn't the only one whose attention was drawn by it, the little faery, Blue, she'd started calling her in her own mind, for lack of a better name, was perched rather intently on her hands and knees, wings all a quiver as she watched from Sarah's shoulder, utterly absorbed by the hypnotic swell of the blossom. She sang, softly, under her voice, utterly enraptured…

"I wouldn't let her get too close, if I were you, Sarah." Those words, somehow richer than she remember, like honeyed wine pouring down her spine, even as every hackle raised, and she felt her adrenaline remind her, almost painfully, that she still couldn't trust him.

Putting a hand lightly in the faery's way nonetheless, Sarah turned with an, admittedly, pretty little scowl, regarding the goblin king with a flickering, wary gaze. "Why is that?" She prompted, not sure at all of what to expect from the mercurially-mooded man… Especially with no way to tell why he'd chosen to appear this time. Yes, he'd tried, in his own ineffectual way, to show a gesture of peace, by way of the enchanted thermos… But she wasn't nearly ready to forget all the trouble he'd caused her just yet.

"That flower," He explained patiently, and perhaps, yes, a little more slowly than necessary, for no clear reason but to test her own patience, "Will snap up your little pet, the way you might snatch up a handful of chocolates. Why else do you think it paints itself such bright, pretty colors?" A slow, bemused twist of his lips. "For your sake? You're a little big to digest." He moved past her, slowly, and with a short, savage yank, wrenched the flower free from its bed of stone, making it let loose a horrid little shriek, and writhe, twisting, in his fingers, before falling silent.

"How could you!" Sarah cried, staring in horror at the wilted, obviously dead and broken bloom, which the goblin king now tossed aside like so much rubbish. "You killed it!"

"I _saved_," The goblin king corrected, with a slight snapping of his teeth, "Your little _pet_." A moment, of gathering himself, since he rarely cared to show how easily the little mortal girl got under his skin, as he moved past her again, not quite looking at her this time. "A thank you would have sufficed."

Sarah, stubborn girl that she was, refused to admit so easily that, in fact, in his own merciless way, he'd probably been doing just this… Much less thank him. How could she thank him? After… After _everything_ he'd done to her? "She's not my _pet_." She settled for denying at last, gradually gathering up the courage for more, little by little. "She's my _friend_."

The goblin king paused, hand raised halfway to his chin, and glanced back at her, offering no real indication, from his expression, what he was thinking. "Another one of those." He noted at last, rather musingly, "Does that mean you've given up on finding the ones you'd already lost? Is _that_," And now he pointed at the, oddly silent, little faery, who watching him without a single nasty thing to say, from the mortal girl's shoulder, "That _thing_, intended to be a replacement for poor wretched Hogs-worth?"

"Hoggle." Sarah whispered, too overcome with frustration at the cruel words to offer a timely comeback. "And I thank you for protecting her, but in the future, will you find a way to help me that doesn't involve killing small defenseless creatures?"

Jareth looked amused. "You really are so picky, Sarah. I see that hasn't changed at all." A random, careless gesture with one arm. "I offer you your dreams, and you want to run my Labyrinth. I offer you a kingdom, and you want a baby." A pause, and then, with a short, amused smile. "Well, I could have helped you with _that_, if you'd given me more time."

Surprised by the unaccustomed, well, _directness _of his flirting, Sarah just stared, jaw slightly dropped, face becoming ever so slowly more and more red… And the Goblin King's smile just grew. "Really Sarah," He chastised her, after another moment of silence, "You're not a child anymore. It's not as if you're still as innocent as you once were…"

"H- How would you know…?" She finally managed to stutter, before turning an even brighter shade of red, and in a gesture she herself found pathetically weak, pointedly avoiding his eyes, for fear of what he'd see there. The most frustrating part of it, of course, was that it was _true…_ And damn him all to hell, he seemed to know it. She'd been dating Adam for… Well, it didn't matter how long, really, but they'd certainly been… _intimate, _in their time.

And for all that, _he'd _never managed to make her blush like her beautiful, hateful, _infuriating_ tormentor, now looking oddly torn between looking like a child who's just discovered a prize toy… And a child who's just observed someone else discovering a prize toy, that he can't have.

"You haven't changed a bit." She finally managed to whisper, hoarsely, making him abandon whatever small irritation that had been possessing him, and smile again, absolutely amused with himself.

"Of course not." He assured her, a bit dismissively, "I've already told you that." Then though, his voice dropped, becoming just so much subtly softer, "But you, Sarah… You've changed, haven't you." And something in his tone indicated that he was no longer sparing any lingering concerns at all over anyone who might have had a hand in changing her. This was… This was something else. An observation not of what she might have done, or with who, but of… _her_. As if he could see something she could not.

Sarah shook her head, frustrated. Humiliated. And damn it all, _angry_. "You just won't give up, will you?" She whispered softly, her voice breaking, though perhaps not enough to be heard. "You just won't give up."

The Goblin King tilted his head, his reckless, unruly mane of hair, showing only the slightest restraints of gravity, as he did. "Pardon?" He murmured innocently, like he really had no idea what she was talking about… "You might have to be a bit more specific, _precious_."

This careless term of endearment oddly scathing to her ears, Sarah turned flashing, angry eyes back at him, lips set in a thin, angry scowl… The full of which earned no more response from the insufferable goblin king than one vaguely lifted eyebrow. "You never_ stop_." She hissed, even more softly now, between ever so subtly bared teeth. "This has always been about you getting what you want from me… You'd do anything to have me just fall into your arms, wouldn't you? Sending your goblins after me, offering me part of your magic, kidnapping my _brother_…"

She broke off, her steam losing its focus as, at her words, the goblin king finally looked truly, genuinely amused. With that look on his face again. The one that said he knew something she didn't, and by some manner she wasn't aware of yet, she'd just succeeded in putting both feet quite firmly in her mouth.

Smiling, just smiling, he considered her, as the silence stretched… And then finally laughed, shortly, the sound utterly dismissive. "So, you still truly believe that was about you, don't you, Sarah?" He purred, there really was no other word for it, mockingly. "I would think that even you could begin to see the obvious after _four years_."

There was no logical answer to this… Of course it had been about her. It had always been about her. That little book her mother had given her… And not just that! He'd offered her… everything. It had to be… If it wasn't? She shook her head, for the first time, genuinely confused. "Who else could it have been about?" She mumbled, sort of under her breath, as she told herself that he was lying, again. That he had to be, because… Because… Well, why else? Why all of _this_?

"Oh, I don't know…" He rolled his head back in exasperation, gesturing with one hand in a way that suggested that, whatever he'd said before now, she really could believe he was just pulling his next answer out of the air, if she wanted to. "Your baby brother?"

"Toby?" The one word, tumbling from her lips, soft as a prayer. Because it wasn't true. She didn't want to believe him. Not for her own sake of course, but her little brother's… Because if he was the one that Jareth wanted, well, as she'd just pointed out, he didn't give _up_.

"Mm." He seemed utterly uninterested in the questions, the confusion, the reassessment of her personal reality, that left her, at the moment, at an utter loss to offer any real challenge to the dangerous king. "After all, it was his name in my book, not yours…"

"Book?" He head lifted again, catching this one word, like it might be something important. "What book?"

The goblin king paused, both eyebrows flying up, and his lips settling into something of a mock thoughtful moue. "Oh, haven't I ever told you about my book?" He mused, with more than his share of stage innocence. "Well," A smile, utterly chilling, in a way that offered nothing of threat. "I suppose _now's _as good a time as any…"

"It's, well, a book, Sarah." He began, after a moment's pause for effect "One older than you can imagine… and far older than me." This part, he said, not with emphasis, but an odd sort of quietness, his eyes unfocusing for just one moment… As if she could have no idea what this really meant. "Far older."

There was a brief pause, and then his gaze focused again, as he turned back to consider her, his manner a bit like this was a lecture he'd given many times before… Even though she was certain he hadn't. "Within it lies the name of every child, born to your world, destined to become a part of mine. It's my job to see that that happens." A small, mocking smile. "That's the reason this world exists, Sarah. That is the reason _I_ rule it."

This was, admittedly, processing a lot faster than she liked. But all the pieces didn't quite fit yet… Still. "And the name in that book…"

"Was your little brother's," He agreed, without a moment's pause to let her mind cushion the blow, "Not yours." For all that he sounded indifferent though, if she'd looked up, she would have seen him watching her very, _very_ intently, to see her reaction.

Sarah though, didn't look up. "I don't understand."

Jareth's lips firmed, as if this were just a little too much to bear… Her not just accepting it and getting over it, and on to whatever else it was she would have known he wanted to tell her, if she would just pay bloody attention.

"No, you wouldn't, would you?" A sort of under his breath musing, utterly merciless, and yet now not meaning to be cruel… Just very much Jareth. "You couldn't _possibly _understand that you were simply a means to an end… A spoiled teenage girl who was certain the world should revolve around her, and annoyed by the intrusion of a miserable little baby that she was expected to turn her life upside down for…" He looked, marginally annoyed, though whether now it was with her stubborn refusal to understand, or what, finally deigning her a glance, he'd seen on the mortal girl's face at his careless denial, there was no way to tell. Either way, he fell very silent for a moment.

Sarah, despite having lived the last four years of her life believing something that the goblin king before her was now telling her had never been true- though why she cared whether or not he loved her, damn it, she didn't know- Finally took a deep breath, and clutched, stubbornly, at her final remaining straw. "I thought you gave me the power to send him away, because…"

"Because I loved you?" Now, finally, he sneered… And even on his beautiful face, it was an ugly expression, though it vanished quickly, as he deliberately turned his gaze, oddly enough, back to the broken flower behind her. "I didn't _love _you, Sarah. I merely saw an easily manipulated mortal girl, who I could easily convince into wishing her brother away for me." A pause, before he added, with some small amount of crossness, oddly enough, "Which you did quite well. I certainly never expected you to go traipsing into my Labyrinth after the child… But by our laws, the opportunity had to be given." This last, more softly, as he seemed to reflect, once more, on what he _wasn't_ saying…

Before his eyes flicked, with an unsettling intensity, back to her. "And you certainly exceeded my expectations." He noted, very quietly, and for once, without a drop of hostility or frustration. "Not only did you manage to traverse my Labyrinth, and turn my own creatures against me in order to do so…" He even smiled, just a little… A bit self depreciating, but genuinely amused, and for once, not at her expense. "You actually defied every known expectation I may have had of some power greater than myself."

This odd moment of… Well, it couldn't be called vulnerability, not from the rough edged goblin king, made her just stare for a moment, until he looked cross again, and then, for reason she didn't know herself, made her not comment on it, and instead turn back to what he'd actually been saying. "The book." She echoed softly.

"Yes, the book." With just a trace of bitterness, his moment of lowered arms passed. "By all rights, you _never _should have been able to take that child back to your world. He was _destined _to become part of _ours_."

And this… The idea that Toby had been _supposed _to be here, that some big destiny had called the goblin king to make her little brother part of this world, and, well, her own part in throwing a pie in the face of the powers that be… That was all too big for her to wrap her mind around at the moment. Instead, with trembling fingers, she stroked the wings of the, still, very silent Blue on her shoulder, and asked, again, quietly, "So… you never loved me?"

"Still stuck on that, are we?" The goblin king no longer seemed to expect any less, and was more than a bit monotone as he mused it over, as if it made no difference to him either way. "Not quite so pleasant not to be the belle of the ball anymore, is it, Sarah?" He turned his eyes to her, and twisted his lips, something like a smile, amused, boastful… scornful. "You believed, what I wanted you to believe. What I needed you to believe, if you were going to do as I required of you-"

And here he stopped, mid-sentence, still full of steam that vanished without a word as he considered her… And it was clear that his next words, for as little as they offered, were entirely unplanned. "And yet."

Sarah no longer had any preconceived notions of what he might say next. "And yet?" Not really tired, or angry, so much as… Simply a bit lost. Like nothing made sense the way she'd thought it had anymore.

"And yet, I must say," The words fell past the goblin king's lips slowly, thoughtfully, as if he wanted to make certain that he said this, at least, right. "I'd never come across anyone quite like you, Sarah." A sort of, amused gentleness to the words. "Manipulative, spoiled. _Proud_. But so many other things as well." His eyes flicked up, taking her in again, and something in them was different now, considering her. "I watched you Sarah, in those thirteen hours, grow from a self-absorbed child, into a brave and selfless woman. I would have had to have been made of stone, not to be moved by it."

Something in her… She didn't know. It felt tense, and then there was a sense, like wet tissue tearing, and then… She wasn't angry anymore. Not really. God, how could she be? Everything she'd thought was his fault, and as much as she'd messed up everything he expected of his world, which made sense until she'd come along… and then that softness to his words, something she didn't understand, couldn't grasp… Something that scared her too much to try to deal with it just then. "So, I don't understand." Quietly. Not quite defeated. "Why are you helping me now?" Just another bid at her baby brother, or…

"You're still not getting it, are you?" Still that gentle amusement, still that look in his eyes as he watched her, as if she were so much more than she could ever dream, just standing there, scratched, bruised, dirty torn and tired. "While it's true that in the beginning, I merely saw you as a useful tool… I can't say it remained that way. Not honestly." Again the smile. "You, a mere snippet of a girl, defying me at every turn, turning my own creatures against me, sending the most ancient laws of this world into chaos… At every turn, you _made _me love you." A pause, before, with a bit more amusement than gentleness now, "I hadn't had so much fun in centuries."

Of course, he should have stopped while he was ahead, when her head was still swimming with those words… _you made me love _you… But she wasn't about to tell him that. "I still don't believe you know what love is." She denied softly, without much conviction.

"No, of course not." He agreed, a bit too easily, but also with a sense of disappointment. "I'm the villain. Clearly I have no heart."

The two just regarded each other then, and Sarah… Sarah saw him again, the way she had the first time at her window, when he was beautiful and dangerous and terrifying… Except this time, she couldn't bring herself to be afraid. And she reflected again, how many times now, he'd insisted that he hadn't changed. And how many times now, he murmured so certainly that she had.

It was too much, and she didn't know what to do with it all yet, but she wasn't ready to just dismiss it either. And the silence extended, between them, even the foul mouthed little sprite not offering even the smallest sound to break it.

And then, without further explanation, Jareth's eyebrows flew together a little, and he turned away, murmuring simply, "There will a time in the coming days, Sarah, when you'll need to know that." A brief wave of his hand. "That is all. Go back to your mindless wandering… I've other things to attend to." And without more than this cursory dismissal, he was gone, leaving her with a thousand questions, and a thousand new reasons to be frustrated by him.

She just stood there, looking at the place where he'd been, wondering what the _hell _had brought that on… And then she was distracted by a small, frightened peep, right by her ear, making her turn, and consider the tiny creature traveling with her, who seemed to have taken something completely different from the entire little exchange. Whether or not Sarah herself was afraid of the terrible goblin king anymore, it was clear that Blue very much was…

A light stroke to the faery's wings, like it was somehow second nature now, and Sarah shook her head, stubbornly, not saying a word. The goblin king, whatever he had up his sleeve- he still had something she was sure- all that could wait. She didn't have time for schemes and subterfuge… He'd told her himself, she had a set limit to find her dreams, and in her own mind, she was certain that had something to do with finding the people she'd left behind years ago. She suddenly missed them all, deeply, and beside whatever Jareth was planning…

Well, the goblin king could wait.


	7. Unforgotten

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

Yes, I realize this is very short, only five pages this time, but I wanted to get something up tonight, and this probably stands best alone anyway. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to rush off to work... Man, just love working the midnight shift...

Regardless of the time of day in various other parts of the Underground, here it was night. True, an actual time couldn't be easily determined- not that time ever passed anything near normally in the Underground- since here, it was always night, but had Sarah been there, she probably would have felt something akin to relief, that in places at least, the sky did actually change.

Sarah however, was not here, and so the only one- _almost _the only one- in a position to appreciate the dazzling display of dancing lights in the heavens, ribbons of blue and brilliant violet, rippling across the sea of stars, and banding the ever present moon… was Hoggle. And he couldn't care two whits about it.

Grumbling under his breath, the creases of his face cast in severe shadow, he sat squatly on the misshapen boulder among the trees, and with thumb pressed firmly against its flat back, plied his little knife in delicate incisions along what had once been a thick length of branch, and was, now, slowly beginning to take on recognizable features.

He cursed himself roundly while he worked, calling himself 'useless,' and 'a failure.' And when he wasn't bemoaning his own lacking, he was, with an occasional shifty glance around to make certain he wasn't being overheard, cursing Jareth instead, in the most colorful language he could think of. And appearances to the otherwise notwithstanding, he could be very creative, when he needed to.

A short rustle in the brush made him stop, and lift his head slowly, a more or less ever present scowl creasing his already folded features, as he stared at what was, without a doubt, the strangest looking shrub in all the Underground. Possibly because the majority of it was made up of a towering, lumpy mass of long red fur, with slender tree branches grasped firmly in either hand, trying vainly to use its sparse leaves to hide a gentle, fearsome face.

"And don't think I don't see you!" Hoggle yelled at the oversized red-headed yeti, shaking his knife in Ludo's direction in an empty show of threat. "You can just get on out of here! You're _her _friend, not _mine_!"

"Uhhh." Ludo blinked small, black eyes, and shuffled back a couple steps, trying again to disappear behind his meager camouflage, much to the apparent disgust of Hoggle, who shook his head with a grunt, turning back to his whittling with no more mind for rock-headed hanger's-on.

And he picked up his cursing right where he'd left off too. "Don't know why she'd come back now… Just gonna cause trouble. Already forgotten us, hasn't she?" A pause, as his cross gaze stared off into space, becoming, for a moment, disturbed. "Forgotten _me_, anyway." And with a wave of his hand, pulling himself from his mulling, "No way Jareth's not gonna do something about it this time!"

"You _are _right, you know." Interrupted a rich, threatening rasp, making Hoggle jump to his feet with wide frightened eyes, carving and blade held more tightly in his grasp, as if they might offer some measure of defense. "Oh, put those down… You know bloody well you're not about to try attacking me, Hogs-wit."

"Hoggle…" The single word came out somewhat like a breath, as the dwarf finally turned, and took in the sight of the goblin king, looking no more pleased than he had any night since being cheated out of his prize by a mere mortal girl. "Whu… What d'you want?"

"Entertainment, at the moment." He noted, a bit off handedly, as he tugged absently on the wrist of his gloves. "A little heartfelt groveling wouldn't be misplaced, considering how poorly you've been following my orders of late." A vague, feigned smile. "How about it Hogget, feel like a little begging?"

Shaking a little, both with anger, and with fear to Jareth's response over words he hadn't even said yet, Hoggle just squared his jaw, and shook his head, in a show at defiance. "I don't listen to you _no _more, Jareth!" A pause, then, "And I don't beg!" He finished, nodding firmly… even if he was taking small steps back while he said it, and kept glancing, nervously, side to side, in an effort to avoid the goblin king's gaze.

"My, my… How brave you've gotten, Hoggrel." Jareth didn't so much as lift an eyebrow at the dwarf's promise of defiance, his tone suggesting that it was just one of those little phases he probably went through from time to time, and who the hell really paid attention? "But if we're skipping the groveling… then I suppose I should just go straight to the reason _I _came to see you."

Hoggle paused, his brow wrinkling up, more than usual. His fingers twitched a little, as he held the knife and bit of wood, but other than that, he gave little other sign now, of his worry. He was feeling, now that he'd said his bit, and hadn't been tossed head-first into the nearest swamp, a little of the defiance he'd been feigning at a moment before. "And what might that be?" He demanded… Insofar as anyone could ever demand anything of the goblin king.

"Well." Jareth finally straightened up a little from his casual slouch, the fine black feathers lining his collar twisting, just so, in a careless breeze. "First of all, you should know that your precious _Sarah _has returned to you. Even now," A vague wave of his hand, "Traipsing through the perils of my labyrinth, stubborn and proud as ever… _desperate _to find a handful of forgotten dreams."

Hoggle waited for more, but when it was apparent that more wasn't coming, he just dropped his head, dug one heel into the soft ground, unnoticed, and reflected on the fact that he was quite certain that Jareth knew damn well, that _he_ already _knew_ Sarah was back, and had been for some time. "Yeah?" He muttered, as if indifferently. "I knows it."

Now, finally, Jareth offered a reaction… If as deliberately feigned as his smile had been before. Surprise. "Well then, what are you waiting for, Hedgewort? Go," A flick of his fingers, mockingly, "Run to your Sarah's aide, help her find her missing dreams… Or…" A pause, and a slight, thoughtful tilt of his unruly mane. "Are you still so upset that your precious Sarah _abandoned _you?"

In a sparse handful of words, Jareth had, as he always did, taken Hoggle's confidence, and crushed it to bits. Without even seeming to say anything at all related to it. "She… she didn't abandon me." He denied softly, under his breath, staring at the dirt again. Like he didn't believe it himself.

And Jareth went on, without seeming to even notice the effect his previous words had had on the small man's confidence, musing, "…And after all you did for her too…" A sigh. "How ungrateful these mortal girls can be." And with a pointed glance. "Believe _me_, I _know_."

"You-" Hoggle stared to echo in disbelief, slowly lifting his head again, as finally, anger seemed to overcome the best of him, and he managed to stand a little straighter, tilting his chin up, hurt holding its footing where pride had failed. "Don't think I don't know it was all your doing, Jareth! Making her lose her dreams…" His voice broke a little, as he added, his head dropping again., "Making her… forget."

"Yes, yes, of course." Jareth agreed, not the least put-off at being blamed… again. At least not by Hoggle. "Clearly it was me. Now… Higgle…"

"Hoggle!" The dwarf yelled, half gasp, as he didn't know himself if he was trying to be defiant anymore, or had just lost complete use of his senses, trying, at the last minute, to take another handful of steps back. "It's… it's Hoggle…"

"Heggle…" Jareth corrected himself carelessly, and as always, incorrectly. "Now, are you really going to sit around here doing nothing, while that girl faces all the dangers of my Labyrinth in order to find you?"

Still taking steps back, now from some grasp of self preservation that was all in instinct, rather than anything that was, at the moment, even remotely resembling common sense. "I don't know where she is…" He groaned, shaking his head as he backed away. "I'd never find her!"

"Hmm." Again, that mild feign of surprise. "And here I thought you knew my labyrinth like the back of your hand."

"I did." Hoggle grumbled softly, under his throat. "Before you went and changed everything…"

Jareth gave him a short, bemused glance, like they both knew that this was just pathetic excuse-making now… "Hodge-podge…" He began, again, as impatiently as ever-

Only to be cut off by Hoggle, who had, at this point, just had enough. And this? This was the straw that pushed him too far. "Hoggle!" He yelled, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration, and stomping one foot, hard. "It's Hoggle! Hog-_gle_!" A growl, and a sense of utter exasperation, as, for a moment at least, he completely forgot his fear, muttering, "You didn't used to get my name wrong…"

Jareth smirked… And as unpleasant as the expression was, it was still the first genuine one yet he'd offered to the smaller man. "Yes," He agreed, in a sort of drawn out humor, suddenly looking as languid as a stretching cat, without so much as moving a finger, "But then I saw how delightfully frustrated it made you when dear Sarah did it…" That smirk again. "And, well. I just couldn't resist."

The words took all of ten seconds to trickle past Hoggle's anger fueled defenses…And another five to actually register as what the goblin king was actually saying. When they did though, his mouth fell open, and for another thirty seconds, he just stared. "You- You mean," He demanded at last, a little shakily, "All this time, you been doing it… on purpose?" As if he just couldn't understand why anyone _would_…

Jareth sigh, clearly hard-pressed by all these little annoyances. "It certainly took you long enough to figure out, Hog-wart." He murmured, just a little crossly, as he finally pulled away from the tree that had been bearing his weight… The strained sapling returning, in a sort of slow motion curl, to its previous position.

"Hog-" The dwarf caught himself correcting, from habit, and grimacing, when he realized the pointlessness of it. "Damn it…"

"Anyway, it stopped being entertaining years ago." He finished, sort of like that was his fault. This was followed by a deep breath as, visibly, the goblin king turned his mind from petty head-games, to far more important ones. "Now," He mused, matter-of-factly, suddenly _all_ seriousness. "What if I help you… _find _the girl?"

Hoggle blinked in surprise. "You'd do that?" He demanded in surprise, only to, very quickly, be hit with a good dose of common sense. This was Jareth they were talking about, after all. The man could make _fruit_ dangerous, for goodness sake. "Why." It wasn't a question though, so much as a statement of the obvious… He wasn't willing to be Jareth's tool anymore.

"Well, for my own reasons, obviously." Jareth assured him calmly, smiling…An expression that somehow managed to promise even more trouble than his usual, crueler expressions. "I know you want to find her… don't try my patience."

The dwarf didn't budge, still frowning, his eyes as serious as they'd ever been. "Not gonna, hurt the little lady, this time?" He pressed at last, suddenly giving the impression of a man far stronger than he'd ever considered himself to be. This time, he wasn't letting Sarah down, wasn't betraying her, no matter what that damn Jareth did to him… "I'm not gonna do nuthin if it's gonna hurt her."

"Oh please…" Jareth sighed, only to pause, and consider the smaller man again, with a bit more of a calculating eye this time. "No, wait. You're serious, aren't you? You would really risk disobeying me…"

"That's right." Hoggle said simply, somehow managing to look determined, even as he shuffled from foot to foot nervously, and wrung his hands for the goblin king to see. "You gotta promise… You gotta promise me you ain't gonna hurt her… Or I ain't doing nothing you say!"

For a long, long moment, there was silence, as the two, ridiculously mismatched in power, squared off, matched, for once, in stubbornness. And if the goblin king didn't need him, he had no doubt he'd already be being spirited off to one of those nasty little places in the Labyrinth that made oubliettes look pretty… But for reasons he didn't know himself, and sure as heck wasn't going to question… The goblin king _needed_ him for something. When it was done though…

Something in the Jareth shifted, ever so slowly, and his smile returned. That one that wasn't a smirk. The one that suggested that this was simply no longer for fun… But there was a decided sense, well, of acknowledgement. "Very well then, Hoggle… I give you my word. I intend no harm to your precious Sarah."

Hoggle paused, for two reasons… One, because for the first time in some four years, the goblin king had actually called him by his real name… And two, because somehow, he wasn't sure just how yet, he'd actually gotten what he wanted from the intimidating man. "You… you mean it?" He murmured at last, slowly, like he wasn't quite willing to believe it yet himself. "You- you really promise?"

"Yes, yes, I _promise_!" Whatever concession he'd just agreed to though, he was clearly in no mood to make any more, and any concept of patience was quickly vanishing from his behavior. "Now, do you want to find the little mortal _wretch_, or not?"

…And he almost objected, _almost_ said that Sarah was no… But then he saw the look in Jareth's eyes, and reminded himself, very quickly, that this was not a man to argue trivialities with. "Y- yes, of course I do." He agreed hastily instead, before pausing, and with a little frown, pressing, hesitantly. "How… how do I do it?"

"Hmph." Seeming more than a little annoyed by the way things had gone, Jareth reached into his pocket, and pulled out a fine, faded handkerchief, pale yellow, and probably older than the two of them combined. "You'll use this." He instructed, a bit grudgingly, holding out the bit of cloth to his servant. When Hoggle started to take it, he added, as if this should be obvious, "It's a map. A very old one." And with a stern point, "Lose it, and it will be your _head_, am I understood?"

Hoggle blinked, and looked up at Jareth in surprise… As many threats as the goblin king offered his subjects on a day to day basis, he rarely, if ever, opted for death as a punishment. If fact, Hoggle had never heard of him doing it before… Not once, in the six hundred years he ruled the Underground… The dwarf looked at the 'map,' but it just seemed to be an outline of a maze, on a faded bit of fabric… Nothing worth dying for.

"Do you understand, Hog's-Brain?" Jareth pressed, leaning very close into the smaller man's space, and eliciting a hasty reassurance from him that, yes, he understood. "Good." Jareth drew back, only slowly, as if reluctant to surrender the hold he had over his servant. "You'll do well to see that it's back in my possession, _before_ that girl finds her way home."

"Um, yes, your majesty." Hoggle agreed, still seeing nothing special about it, but unwilling to risk Jareth's anger in saying so. "I understand, your majesty. I'll be going right now, your majesty." Bowing, all the way back, as he moved away from the goblin king…

"Hoggle?" A sound, almost of just being too weary to summon a proper threat.

"Y-yes, your majesty?"

Jareth hooked his thumb over his shoulder. "_That_ way, Hoggle?"

Hoggle glanced at the map in his hands… Which he couldn't make heads or tails of, and nodded enthusiastically, almost stumbling over his feet as he headed in that direction as well… Only to pause, like he was forgetting something, and stare at Jareth for a moment, trying to remember what it was.

"What is it?" Jareth demanded, beginning to grow impatient again.

"Oh! Uh… Um…" His eyes cast around, looking for the reason he'd stopped, and finally landed on a pair of small black eyes, still watching, silently, from the shadows. Well, it helped to know that Ludo was as big a coward as he was, where Jareth was concerned… "Come on then, she'll want to see you too!"

A pause, as serious, gentle eyes considered him, then Jareth, who smirked, and made a careless, 'after you,' gesture, clearly waiting for them both to get the hell out of his presence. Slowly, the large creature turned after Hoggle, deliberately no longer looking in the direction of the goblin king, and lumbered, deliberately, towards his smaller friend. "Ludo. Come." He agreed, not exactly reluctantly… But as if he hadn't quite figured out what was going on yet.

Hoggle shook his head, and limped away, not looking back to see if the bigger fellow was following… And Jareth pinched the place between his eyes, muttered something below his breath about 'another eternity enduring numbskulls, thanks to that miserable girl…'

And for once, didn't disappear from view dramatically, but just tipped his head back, and watched the sky, silent.


	8. Making Peace?

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

(**break**)

I'm sorry. I know it's been a month. I know I haven't even kept in contact with my friends, fans, or anyone. I was frustrated as heck at my writer's block, no matter what I wrote, I hated it, and so I wrote, rewrote from scratch, scrapped it, and sat in a funk in front of my computer, not wanting to talk to anybody. Even people who've offered such wonderful support, both from my old fandom, and this one as well.

I've been in a funk. I kind of still am, but I'm hoping the fact that I like this effort to be a sign that I'll be feeling better soon. Or at least that my writer's block is crumbling. One of which is usually the other.

Eck, sorry to talk your ear off... I'll try to get back in touch when I wake up. Answering reviews, pm's... Um, sorry, for, stuff... yeah...

And since none of my usual page breaks seem to be working, I'm trying something less subtle. Not that you'll see it used much in this chapter.

(**break**)

_For the love of mercy, why didn't I think to bring an aspirin?_ Sarah sat in one more barren passageway, no different from a hundred before- or at least that's what it felt like- back slumped against the dirty gray wall, two finger probing gently at her temple.

It was her own fault, of course. If she hadn't tried so hard _not_ to think about it, her skull probably wouldn't currently feel like the epicenter of a blacksmith's convention. Gritting her teeth, some tiny vein pumping away in her ears… It was really only a matter of time. And in all her planning of what she might need in the Underground, it hadn't occurred to her to bring an aspirin. Or bandages. Or peroxide. Because apparently, it hadn't occurred to her that somehow or other, she might actually end up getting hurt.

Her free hand rubbing slowly on the yellowing bruise along her exposed leg, she pressed her lips together, firmly, and reflected that it was just one more case of only seeing what she expected to see… or something.

She didn't know what to think anymore. Trying to pretend that whole conversation with Jareth hadn't happened, had just resulted in a headache. It was like some kind of splinter in her brain… She'd been _wrong_. Why was that so hard to accept, except that she'd believed it so deeply, for so long? Her whole fantasy world revolved around it… The wicked goblin king, in love with the mortal girl, stealing her brother away in a moment of weakness, in order to lure her into his world…

Only it wasn't her fantasy, wasn't even her world. Wasn't supposed to be, anyway. It was _supposed_ to be Toby's. A world of magic, danger, excitement and dreams… And she'd 'saved' him from it.

But what was she supposed to have done? Just, let him be taken away? From his parents, from her? Without even knowing why?

Nothing was happening the way it was supposed to. It wasn't that she really thought the Labyrinth would be easy to beat a second time… But now she was beginning to wonder how she'd ever managed to beat it once. And in thirteen hours… give or take.

"Jareth." Just a whisper, half sigh, as she tipped her head back to consider the sky again. She wasn't in a hurry anymore… There didn't seem to be a point. She'd either find her dreams or she wouldn't, and running stubbornly deeper and deeper into an unfamiliar maze, without any idea where she was going, or what she was looking for, probably wasn't going to help.

And she had other things on her mind at the moment.

"Damn him." This seemed to be, more a less, a continuation of her earlier thought. For all her games of the goblin king being in love with her, she'd never really taken it seriously. Just thought it was part of the fantasy… And at that, not a particularly important one… Until he said it wasn't true. And then said it was, almost in the same breath. With that infuriating little smirk, like it was just such a source of personal amusement… Imagine, him, actually falling in love with her…

_Love_. A little flare of irritation went off behind her eyes, like a blossom of heat, and either made her headache ease, or grow worse, she wasn't sure which. It really was too painful by this point to make a difference. _Love_. She'd thought she was so special, because some faery-tale, fantasy-world, immortal king was in love with her… And pretended the whole time to dismiss it as a bit of an annoyance. Who wanted the goblin king in love with them, anyway? He was nothing but trouble. Not to mention, he had absolutely the worst ideas of how to show someone he cared…

_I reordered time, turned the world upside down, and I did it all for you…!_

Sarah made a face, pushing herself grudgingly to her feet, tugging her jean leg back into place, and dusting off her palms wearily on her hips. "Blue, we're leaving." She prompted quietly, not sure where the little faery had gone, but oddly certain, even if she didn't know why, that she'd come back the moment she was called. Even if it went completely against everything she knew about the creature.

A moment later though, the tiny woman zipped easily over the far side of the wall, and settled, without hesitation, onto Sarah's slender shoulder, taking a handful of long brown hair into her arm to help her keep her balance. It was all sort of a sense of, _okay, I'm here, what's next_? Like Sarah's return to the Labyrinth was just the most fun she'd had in ages.

Which of course, just brought Jareth's words to mind, about how he hadn't had so much fun in centuries…

Grimacing, Sarah swung her pack up, on her other shoulder, of course, and reflected that she really should be dwelling on more important things at the moment, like a lack of food, or how much she'd love to stumble onto another source of clean water, to wipe some of the dust of the Labyrinth from her skin…

But no. Instead she was picking apart the words of a man who had, when they met, dismissed her as no more than an easily manipulated, and easily disposable, pawn. A faery tale where Toby was slated, one day, to be part of a fantasy world… Destined, chosen… And she was just the means to an end, who'd managed to get everything all mucked up.

She was pretty sure that none of the stories she'd ever read had worked out that way.

"I shouldn't be surprised," She noted, a bit to no one at all, though Blue did cast her a curious glance, albeit unnoticed, "I mean, why would Jareth do anything by the book?" Despite everything, her lips curled a little at her own joke, and she shrugged, nearly unseating the little blue faery, before continuing, with a sort of resigned humor, down the passageway she'd been following for the better part of two hours. Labyrinth indeed.

So she wasn't the heroine she'd thought she was. And maybe Jareth wasn't the villain. Exactly. Maybe none of the roles fit the way they were supposed to. Not that she could undo anything, or would. But who was she supposed to complain about it to? Hoggle?

She rubbed the back of her neck for a while as she walked, and slowly, though the scenery didn't change, her headache gradually faded enough to be relegated to the back of her mind, with thoughts of fairness, hopes for a hot bath, and expectations… somewhat… for any sort of faery tale ending to her little journey. Finding her dreams, and not dying, would do for now.

"It's all about perspective, really." She mused aloud, not really watching where her feet went, which could be a dangerous mistake in her own world, much less the underground. At the moment she felt like throwing caution to the wind. "Like right now? I've been running in circles, trying to find my dreams, so I can get back to my own world…"

"But why?" She slowed to a stop, briefly, as she debated this. "All this time, I've wanted to believe in this world so much… and now I'm here, and all I can think about is getting home?" She shook her head, and started moving again. "I should at least enjoy it while it lasts…" She decided, firmly…

Her words cutting off again, rather abruptly, as the path she'd followed for so long now drew to a rather definite end, and she was, once more, face to face with one of the Labyrinth's little less wonderful games. "Oh, come on!" She moaned, wringing the fingers of her free hand through her hair, as she looked at the impossible valley of heavy, rolling spiked monstrosities waiting before her. "I mean, really, is that even necessary?" She looked, a bit randomly, at the general area around her, as if addressing the Labyrinth itself. "I'm trying to be a good sport about this, here!"

The heavy metal balls though, just continued to tumble along their assigned grooves without any hint of apology, nasty, jagged parts, promising pain to any foolish enough to think they could get across… And there had to be at least two dozen of them, stretching half a hundred yards that she could see, with more probably waiting just around the bend that vanished to her view. And they weren't slow about it, either.

Turning back to the impasse, she glowered in frustration, trying, for one moment, to imagine playing dodge ball with heavy metal spheres that could as easily crush part or all of her, or slice her to ribbons. "This is… impossible!" She muttered, suddenly aware of her headache again, and tired of throwing herself against one stupid challenge after another. "There's no way across! I mean, is this all this place is, games and tricks and more traps?" She ran out of words, and just stared uselessly forward…

Before closing her eyes, biting down her pride, and trusting that he'd actually give enough of a damn to answer her, like he'd said he would… "Jareth?" A pause. Nothing. Irritation rose in her like a cloud of angry pink, and she stomped her foot, snapping his name again, louder this time. "Jareth!"

"You don't have to shout." She was, despite her own expectations for him to appear, surprised by the suddenness, and turned so fast that she almost fell over her own feet in order to face him. The goblin king looked, cross. Not like he was annoyed, so much, as that she had really inconvenient timing… In one hand, hanging at his side, a thick book, its page held by his thumb, as he waited impatiently to find out why she'd called him.

"What is that?" She asked more softly, briefly forgetting her reason for summoning him in the first place. What kind of books did the goblin king read, after all…? Well, knowing him, probably puzzle books, strategy games… Who even knew?

"That's why you called me, Sarah." He prompted, with a deadpan expression. Both of them knowing it wasn't, him just making it a little more obvious. "I really have other things to do…" He gestured, with one lace ensconced wrist, at the book in question.

"What is it?" She prompted again, too curious now to let it go. What books did a magical, immortal king of the underground _have_ on his coffee table…?

"It's a book of very old laws," He admitted, after a moment of silence, seeming to acknowledge that she wasn't going to simply let it go, until he answered, "Many of which you seem to be in the habit of breaking… Sarah, if I'm not here for a reason…?"

"The pleasure of my company?" She heard herself snapping, just a little sharply. It was, quite possibly, the stupidest answer she could have given, but she was getting annoyed by the goblin king's cursory dismissal, as if he just had so little time for her, when as far as she was concerned, at least some of this was still his fault…

He just looked at her, with a little, sideways glance, not saying anything. As if that was really just too easy of a target, and beneath his efforts. "Sarah…" He said again, a little tiredly…

Fine. Fine, she could get to the point. Her jaw firmed, and she stepped back, gesturing at the valley of spiked volleys. "That. " She said simply, not sure herself why his willingness to dismiss her was getting under her skin. "That's why I called you, all right?"

Jareth lifted his head, considering the deadly obstacle musingly, then looked back at her, as utterly expressionless as before. "What _about_ it?"

For a moment, she just stared, then, as if it should be obvious to anyone with eyes, gestured towards the, somehow horribly silent, tumbling spheres again. "There's no way across." She explained, as carefully as possible this time, in case he wanted to play stupid some more.

"Yes, well, I can see that." He agreed, glancing down at his wrist now, as if the trap itself simply no longer concerned him. "That was rather the _idea_, Sarah…"

When nothing else seemed forthcoming, in the way of advice, Sarah threw one arm up, letting it settle at the back of her head, helplessly, as she turned to consider the obstacle again. "Well, what am I supposed to do?" She demanded at last, in sort of a muted voice… Not that it should actually surprise her that Jareth wasn't really going to help, the way he'd said he would, but… Well, she was just sort of out of ideas.

Jareth's demeanor changed, just marginally… Though he still didn't lift his lidded gaze. Maybe something as simple as a twitch of the edge of his lips. He'd seemed to have given up being simply allowed to go back to his reading… Now a bit more willing to see where this would go. "I suppose you could turn around," He mused, turning to consider the long corridor behind her, well aware it stretched for unbreaking miles back the way she'd come… "Take another path… Perhaps the one by that marble statue…"

Sarah considered him, briefly, before she dismissed the idea. Never mind that she didn't remember any marble statue since that garden with the fountain… And that there had been only one path out of there. "No. No, I have to go this way." She denied, not sure this was true, but slightly more certain that she'd never get anywhere if she spent all her time backtracking. She hesitated a moment, remembering how important wording could be in the Labyrinth, before prompting, carefully, "What would _you _do?"

Now he smiled. It was one of those smiles he had that was just a little too amused, and told Sarah she really wasn't going to get the answer she wanted. And he turned, and while she watched, walked across the ball pit, somehow managing, without twisting, turning, or making the slightest effort to avoid the deadly spikes, to stride well down the line of tumbling boulders, and pause, in a little gap between them, turning back to her with a smirk, and a little flourish of his arms.

Floundering for the right word, Sarah's jaw moved uselessly in frustration, finally yelling out loud, any attempt at controlling herself, gone, "That doesn't help me!"

"Oh, you want me to HELP you…" She had to spin, as, someone, the voice came from behind her now… And of course, found Jareth standing just slightly past where he'd first appeared, amused to no end… The book, not that she noticed it at the moment, now nowhere in sight. His eyebrows twisted a little, as he leaned, just a little closer, conspiratorially, "You really should be more specific, Sarah."

She started to object… or pull away, or at least think of something to say that didn't leave her standing there like a gaping mouthed fool while the insufferable goblin king stood close enough to steal a kiss, if he got it into his head to… Instead just reaching out, and lightly, tracing one, leather clad fingertip lightly across her cheek. "You may find that this will help." He whispered, with a little wink, before drawing back away… Sarah managing to reclaim none of her dignity before he did.

Angry, Sarah made a short, belated sound of fury, finally taking a step back… Only to realize she was now clutching something smooth, round, and cool, in her right hand. Forgetting her moment's temper, she lifted the glistening orb, feeling its weight in her hand, and for one brief instant, feeling a tiny thrill of forbidden excitement, claiming one of the goblin king's twisting orbs in her palm… This one without bursting at her touch.

"What's this?" She whispered, staring, very intently, at the enchanted glass… Forgetting, for a moment, the danger it could pose, if Jareth got it into his head. Instead, it just seemed filled with tingling light that teased at her mind, and eluded her eyes completely- Dancing, just beyond sight, and promising… _everything_.

Jareth just watched her, a smug little look curling his lip as he considered her reaction to his magic, made tangible, against her skin. But if his eyes were calculating, and his lips curved into a hungry little smirk… His words revealed none of it, and Sarah didn't think to look. "It's five minutes, Sarah." He murmured, using that sultry, too close for comfort voice, even though he was now some distance away. "Don't waste it." His expression enormously self-satisfied…

She wasn't just taking a few sips of otherworldly water this time, after all… This time, she would be bending the magic of the Underground _herself_… And that fit perfectly into his plans.

Sarah, utterly forgetting the danger of letting her guard down around the man, like she hadn't learned a damn thing from their time together, still just staring at the crystal bubble like it refused to release her gaze… A fate Blue seemed to share, from her place atop the girl's shoulder, just as easily forgetting her own fear of the man as well. "How do I use it?" Was all Sarah asked, finally turning her eyes away from it… Not to lift to Jareth's own, but to consider the obstacle behind her.

There were few things in existence that ever gave Jareth hesitation… But just for an instant, his gaze returned to the crystal in her hand, while she was otherwise distracted, and his fingers twitched, ever so slightly. It was a gamble. He was risking everything… Things he didn't even understand… by making her risk so much as well…

But when she turned back to him, to see why he hadn't answered, he just lifted his gaze, arched one brow, and offered a brief, condescending little smirk, in reply. "Oh, you want MORE help?" He taunted, every bit the man without a care in the world. "Am I supposed to give you _all _the answers now, Sarah?"

Damn it… Why couldn't he be nice for two minutes? Sarah's gaze turned from him, dismissively, wondering again why it was so easy for him to goad her… So easy for him to get under her skin. "No." She denied coldly, telling herself it was true. "I'll do it myself." _Arrogant, self-centered, infuriating… ooh! _She wanted to stomp her feet, and yell, and tell him exactly what she felt…

But that was exactly what he wanted, of course.

That, and around him, she didn't really know how she felt, one moment to the next. He changed, _everything_, she thought she knew about herself. And it made her throat tight, and it made her want to scream… And for the life of her, she just didn't want to let him see what he did to her, because it would just make him offer that infuriating little smile again, and offer some jibe about whether he was getting too close for comfort…

She sighed, and let it go. Albeit with some effort. What the hell kind of good did it do, getting mad at him? She wasn't a kid anymore. He wasn't some awe-inspiring, looming figure in her window. And like he'd said so many times now… He had no intention of changing the way he was.

But she had. "Thank you." She said softly, pretending the words didn't taste bitter on her tongue. "This will really help." And if she didn't quite look at him as she said it… Well, she was _trying_, wasn't she?

Jareth, for a moment, said nothing. Another man might have been considering his conscience, manipulating her, again, to get what he wanted… But truthfully, the thought never even crossed his mind. There was another reason his eyes went quietly serious as he watched the girl turn away from him… Something in her tone, not her words, that stayed him, and not just to see if she'd succeed.

She stood by the edge of the tight passage, its dangerous curves offering volleys of death every other second, and felt the heaviness of the orb in her hand. She wondered, for a moment, if she could do more with it than he'd said. Probably, she could go back home, end this now, forget any of it had ever happened.

Grow up.

But… that wasn't what she wanted. Deep down, that part of her that had stayed alive so long, that part of her that believed in magic, and wishes, and dreams coming true… or nightmares… it begged her to stay. And her fingers closed hard on the smooth surface of the crystal, until her bones showed their faint white through the back of her fingers, her head lowered for a long, wordless moment.

Then she lifted her face, and considered the sky… Its harsh steel gray, and violent ribbons of red and gold, the sort of sky that promised thunder and lightning and darkness as the world is swallowed up in the taste of electricity and damp earth, held in those moments forever, twisting and twinging across the heavens without rest… And for a moment, her throat was tight again, and not because she was angry.

"It's beautiful." She whispered, still not looking at the goblin king, but assuming, for the purpose of this conversation, that he was in fact still there. "You know that, don't you? It's not just the gardens, or the statues, or the backwards rain, or the way the air feels after it comes back down… I don't know what it is. But it's beautiful."

No answer. Feeling foolish, she came back to herself slowly, and shook her head, wondering why she'd waste emotions like that on a man who probably didn't even…

_At every turn, you made me love you_…

"Jareth, you're an arrogant bastard, you know that, right?" She asked softly, finally turning to meet his gaze once more. Somehow in a better mood than she'd been only a moment before.

The goblin king, rather than looking annoyed, adopted a bit of an amused moue, and tilted his head, just a little, in acknowledgement. "That may be, Sarah," He agreed, satisfied somehow, by the exchange they'd just had, in a way she didn't understand. "But then…" That smile. "You did call for me." And as if that wasn't bad enough, he added, after a deliberate pause, "Twice now, in fact…"

"Huh." Sarah found herself, remarkably, trying vainly not to smile in return, and just shook her head, suddenly certain, though she didn't know just what had decided it for her, that she wasn't going home yet after all. Not until she found her friends. Not until she found her dreams. "I guess I did."

She didn't turn to leave yet though, her bit said. For his part, neither did Jareth. By the same token, neither seemed to have anything left to say, either.

And finally, when it started to get a little strained, the sense of awkwardness between them, as neither said anything, Sarah did turn away, and consider, finally, how she was going to make the damn crystal do anything at all. She considered it, in her hand, then… just let it roll from her fingertips, towards the deadly display before her, tinkling musically as it hit the stone, and continuing forward… It just felt right.

When the crystal touched the first of the spiked abominations… they all stopped. Everything stopped. For an instant, it was hard to breathe, as if even the air itself refused to obey her pull under the constraints of a full time stop, and then, after a moment of struggle, it occurred to her that she didn't really need to breathe, if everything else was frozen.

Glancing back, for an instant, she wasn't surprised to see the goblin king already gone, apparently not held by the restraints of his own spell, before turning back to the challenge still before her. _I should have timed it better_, she grumbled to herself silently, considering the handful of dangerously jagged menaces still offering more than enough challenge to squeeze past, without slicing herself open.

_Oh well, live and learn…_


	9. Vulnerabities

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

(**break**)

Um, once again, behind on my correspondences... sorry... I'll get to it soon...But hey, this chap didn't take so long, right?

(**BREAK**)

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, _stupid_!" Hoggle kicked at the decaying stump in useless frustration, scattering damp bits of wood here and there as his blows dug more and more deeply into the bark. "Stupid Jareth! Stupid map! Useless piece of old rag!" The bit of cloth in his hand, he made as if to throw it, briefly letting his temper get the better of him… Before, with an abruptness that made him tremble, remembering the goblin king's threat.

Slowly, he sank to the soggy earth, folding to an undignified squat, and unrolling the piece of, for lack of a better word, rag. It hadn't changed. Of course. Less than a dozen lines, etched across a faded bit of fabric, supposedly outlining the new way through his master's maze… Which had hundred of corridors, constantly changing, and a thousand more traps, all lying in wait. _None_, of which seemed offered on his so-called map.

Throwing his arms up, briefly, he lifted his head, with a scowl, and waved the map in Ludo's direction. "Don't suppose this'd be making any more sense to you, then?" He grumbled, his companion just watching him, his large features creased into folds of gentle concern.

"Find. Sarah." Ludo grunted finally, pointing off, apparently randomly, to a nonexistent path through the trees, just to their left.

"That's what I'm…!" Hoggle hit himself in the knees so hard that he fell over, quickly pushing himself up again, and brushing himself off, pretending he'd meant to do it. "That's what I been trying to do…" He pointed out, sort of sighing, and wondering, briefly, why the girl couldn't have just found her way to him, same as before. "Well come on then, we've got to figure out which way to go…"

Ludo took a few slow, shumbling steps to his left, lifting his head to look off at something in the distance which, presumably, only he could see. Hoggle of course, paying no attention to him, as he considered their surroundings, the uselessness of a map that couldn't be read, and at random, picked a direction for them to follow. "All right, this way!"

Before he could take more than two steps, Ludo had reached out, grasping him gently with one oversized hand, and pulled him back the direction he'd just come from. "Find. Sarah." Ludo insisted again, firmly.

Hoggle threw him off, impatiently, and grabbed a handful of the red giant's fur in one hand, pointing the direction he'd chosen. "We're going _that_ way!" He growled stubbornly.

For a moment, Ludo considered the direction that Hoggle had indicated, frowned so deeply his eye ridges met, and turned again, persistently, back to the same spot through the trees. "Sarah!" He repeated, clearly growing more frustrated as the smaller man continued to ignore him. "Sarah, that way!"

"And how would _you_ know it, you big-" At this point, the red yeti apparently got fed up, just snagging Hoggle with surprising dexterity by the back of his shirt, lifting him into the air with ease, and dropping his across one massive furry shoulder. "Hey! _Hey!_ Lemme down you overstuffed…!"

"Sarah…" Ludo paid no more mind to Hoggle, who was struggling and kicking as uselessly as a small child might, in a similar position… If using language no small child would know. The extent of Ludo's reaction though, was a mild look of frustration, before heavy feet began picking out the path that the Labyrinth's stones sang only to him. "Sarah… Coming…"

(**Break**)

Another day, or so she'd venture… hours of long corridors, a couple dozen twists and turns, and brief pauses in gardens of stone or plant, so beautiful that they took her breath away. She finally stopped at one such, beside a brilliant fountain of amber-colored crystal, sending, of all things, pale crystalline bubbles spiraling away through the air… The breezes filled with a smell that made her think of ginger ale, while uncounted tiny figures, all set in translucent stone, stood about the carven clearing, cast in the most intricate detail… And somehow, never in the same place she'd seen them last, when she looked again.

The fountain itself, filled with a liquid almost the same delicate amber as the stone, like a dark champagne… while more of the little bubbles, not large enough to escape its weight, bobbed about, miniature versions of the goblin king's own, rolling like beads of ice across a sheet of silk. As usual, as everything in Jareth's distorted little world, somehow beautiful, and not quite right, all at once.

And quite frankly, the second part of that meant less and less to her with each passing hour. Her feet were sore, with blisters having popped up in the most inconvenient places, her skin was dusty, and lined with smudge marks where her flesh had had the audacity to sweat, the bruise in her leg was now an almost constant throbbing pain, and she was tempted to trade half the dreams she had left, for a nice hot bath… And still this wasn't why.

But_- I don't remember it being like this…_ she mused silently, removing her shoes with a grimace, gentle fingers seeking aching toes. _I'd swear to god it was easier when I was fifteen…_ And yet. Her eyes followed the floating, spinning spheres as they twisted through the air, and she listened, with a bit of an absent ear, to the gurgling of whatever it was that roiled through the fountain's depths… And in some part of her mind that wasn't preoccupied with the pain, she reflected that, somehow, she wasn't in the hurry that she'd been before. This was no longer just about finding her dreams, and getting back home… This was-

It was-

Well, she didn't know what it was. Just, a bit like remembering a part of herself she'd forgotten. Something that had slipped away, and she hadn't even noticed.

Blue meanwhile, was having the time of her life, leaping, like some dainty water sprite, from bubble to bubble, slipping occasionally, and having to rely on her wings to balance her, but to all intents and purposes, just having a gay old time. Bouncing, on the big ones, until they wobbled with her weight, and threatened to pop, and then leaping away again, leaving their thin crystal skins to hum, musically, behind her.

And if that wasn't enough of a sight to lift anyone's spirits, Sarah didn't know what was. Giving up on her feet as things better left alone, they really objected too much to being touched anyway, Sarah fished for her thermos, absently, and languidly enjoyed a drink as she played a silly little game with the little figurines around her, trying to memorize their places, and then try to catch them in the act of moving, before they could freeze again. She got the feeling she was beginning to annoy some of them, when, upon turning back, she found more than one now offering her a familiar rude gesture with one arm…

The faery, straddling one particularly large bubble, bouncing on it like one of the toys small children played with, paid them no mind at all… But did watch Sarah, pausing in her game to consider the out of place mortal girl, for once, not offering the slightest sound to indicate what she was thinking. And Sarah, well, Sarah didn't even notice. She was still too intent on enjoying her own games…

But it wasn't long before she paused, one finger in the middle of prodding a tiny gnomish figure's wide girth, and wondered herself, briefly, how exactly she'd gone from taking twists and turns in a desperate frustration, to sitting here, in one of the goblin king's own gardens, dirty and sore… and smiling.

Hmph. "This place gets under your skin, doesn't it?" She mused, turning to her sole companion so far, who'd returned to her game of striking the crystals, with a good solid thump, to hear their fragile song, and no longer paid the least bit of attention to Sarah.

"I can see how I was starting to think I'd made it all up though…" Her eyes turned, wistfully, over her surroundings, before retuning, stubbornly, to the mocking reminders of her longtime rival, twisting through the air, the same way they'd spun across his fingers. "I mean, this is exactly the sort of world I _would _have dreamed up… once upon a time."

And it didn't occur to her yet, as she was saying it, that this was exactly the sort of world the goblin king _had_ dreamed up. "I wish… I could keep coming back, when this is done. That I could keep remembering." But that would mean making peace with Jareth, and, well…

Well, there went that good mood. Sarah sighed, and felt briefly frustrated with him for, well, everything. As much as anything, for the fact that she'd just gotten so used to the idea of painting him as her opponent… No, as the _bad guy_… And now she was starting to wonder. Sure, he was insufferable, annoying, condescending, and a royal pain- The key word being royal, she supposed- But it had been a long time since she'd thought of him as anything but the reason why things went _wrong _in her life.

And as childish as it was, the idea that she might actually have to take _responsibility _for all of this, just made her angrier with him.

She bit her thumb, moving to the side of the fountain, and absently poked one of the smaller bubbles, just to see what it would do. It felt cool, and hard, and slick… Like if she tried to grab it, it would slip right out from between her fingers. She poked it again. It bobbed under the surface, then back up, rolling at her accusingly. She thought of Jareth. Again.

Damn, why did she keep thinking of him? No matter what his reasons, no matter if it was her own fault, he'd _stolen_ her brother. She had to remember that. Right? _Right?_

She prodded the bubble again. Still it stubbornly refused to pop, just rolling away from her across the golden brown liquid, until she could no longer reach it. Sarah set her thermos down, and reached in her pack again. God help her if Jareth popped in now… She needed a bath. Even if it only consisted of wiping her face, her feet, and her arms, she wanted to feel cleaner. And she was willing to sacrifice a pair of socks in the process.

Before she could do more than dunk the thin cotton stocking in the puddle she'd formed in her hand, Blue suddenly sent up a trill of warning, and Sarah lifted her head, sharply, to see where the threat was coming from. She'd forgotten, in the beauty of the garden, and her moment of peace, that the labyrinth was dangerous… And that was a mistake she couldn't afford to make too often.

It looked- that is, what seemed to be creeping into the meager light offered by the clearing, beneath the grey sky- a bit like a bat. Only without the wings. It had very long forelimbs, a squat, turned up face, and very slender fingers… Not in that order. It had no eyes, to speak of, and from time to time, as it crept forward, dragged by its long arms, it paused, licked the fingers of its right hand, and lifted them into the air, its small ears moving back and forth… Before moving forward once more.

The thing would have been utterly terrifying, if it weren't for the silky mop of silver cascading gently from its crown, tied up delicately in plaits with a pretty black ribbon, each of its slender fingers adorned with a different, dazzling ring… Actually, it kind of was anyway, attempts to make itself pretty notwithstanding.

Finally, it stopped, drawing its arms around in a careless manner, crossing them before it in wide loops, and resting its head across where they joined, considering the pair sitting there, very quietly, before it, just as if it hand no problem seeing them at all. Its back legs, small and somewhat useless looking, if shaped far more like normal hands, turning a small, spherical stone back and forth between them.

"What has we here?" The creature giggled, only adding to the slight surrealness of the situation by having a voice rather like a old woman- and rather like a serpent. "We has visitors to our garden! Yes, yes…" A slow, graceful nod of the head, sending her pretty silver plaits bobbing. "A faery we has… and… yes, yes, a mortal!" Her lips curled in a wide smile, showing delicate, razor-like teeth. "Wonderful! It has been so long since we has had a mortal in our little shrine…"

Sarah didn't know what to say, so she decided, rather recklessly, just to be blunt. "Um… are you dangerous?" She asked, feeling a bit like actually asking it that way sounded pretty stupid… But not sure what else to say.

"Dangerous?" The- bat, tilted her head, clicking her tongue reproachfully. "If we were dangerous, why for the telling you? No, no… not _dangerous_…." A satisfied _tap_, with the longest finger of her right hand. "No, not the be telling _you_…"

"No…" Sarah denied slowly, not particularly surprised. "Of course not." Never having enough stood up to face this newest danger, Sarah now just folded her arms across her knees, sock still in hand, and considered her… him? She honestly wasn't sure. "So, why is it wonderful that I'm here?"

"Ah…" The creature lifted one, webbed, exaggerated finger, and smiled, a smile all needles and teeth. "It is wonderful for us, because it means you are looking for something! Why else would the human girl come here…" It made a general, sweeping gesture with its wing, indicating the garden, "Unless she was looking for something?"

Sarah couldn't quite prevent the brief, wild flail of hope in her chest… And despite her efforts to conceal it, it was clear from the creature's low chuckle, that it knew... somehow. Still… "You know what I'm looking for? You know where it is?"

"_We_…" The creature sighed, with a sort of exaggerated, breathy hiss, accompanied by a look of deep satisfaction. "_We_ know where _everything_ is." Again, that gesture with one long, webbed finger. "We have known every corner of his goblin majesty's maze, we have crept y tunnel, scaled every wall… It has _no_ secrets left from _us_."

"Then," Sarah rose slowly, not quite comfortable being on eye level with the demonic looking thing, and little more so, considering it from a few extra feet of height., "You know where my dreams are."

For a moment, the gargoyle looked confused… Then smiled slowly, showing every one of its long, nasty teeth, and nodded, looking pleased with itself. "Yes, _yessssss_… We knows where her dreams are, this Sarah creature. We have heard the whole of the underground singing of her… _precious_, dreams." An attempt to look helpful, and failing, due to the sudden clear glint of maliciousness in the creature's smile. "Yes, yes, we will help the _Sarah_…."

Giving the demon a long, pointed glance, Sarah cast a sideways look at Blue, who was standing, somehow, in midair, making soft, angry clucking sounds with her tongue, clearly not trusting the creature. A small smirk settled along the corner of Sarah's mouth. "I agree." She said softly, before turning back to the creature, and noting, as inoffensively as possible. "I appreciate the offer… But I think we're better off on our own. Thank you." And with this she made a point of moving past the beast, gripped with the deep-seated sense that staying in its company any longer than necessary was just, well, a very bad idea.

The demon hesitated, surprised, clearly not expecting this quick dismissal… Then quickly moved to intercept her, reaching out with one bony hand to close, unpracticedly, around her wrist. "No, no… Not leave…" It crooned, its voice somehow becoming both oily and silky at once, and leaving her with nothing more than a desire to quickly scrub away the place where it still touched her, trying now to get between her and the only exit.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd get out of my way." Sarah pressed, finally growing visibly uneasy, as Blue's tiny clicks finally crescendoed into one of her truly angry songs, as the faery began darting back and forth, in quick, short bursts, displaying her own uneasiness. "I said we don't need your help. Besides," And this, at least, felt even truer, once she'd said it, "I think my dreams are something I have to find on my own."

Growing more agitated itself, the gargoyle bared its teeth again, this time not in a smile, but in a barely restrained look of sheer fury. "The Sarah will take help from the useless little _bug_, but she dismisses us as if we were beneath her notice? _Hhhh-thhh_…" A drawn out hiss, as its tongue flicked to caress just the points of its teeth. "And why is this _Sarah_ creature of such importance? What use, such an ugly, stupid creature, to our king of goblins? Yet such a price he would pay, for this useless, ugly creature…"

Sarah's dread had slowly given way to a surprisingly sense of lucidity, and now she reflected, consciously or otherwise, that this wasn't going to end nicely… This little monster wasn't going to let her just walk away. And for the king of the goblin's sake, no less… She felt a brief, bitter frustration, questioning everything she'd questioned over the past few hours, about the man, and then pushed it away, to deal with at another time. There were more immediate issues to worry about, after all…

Not bothering any attempts to pull her hand free, Sarah just held the dangerous creature's gaze, smiling slowly… a forcibly mocking look, as her free hand moved surreptitiously to her side, and the twist tie fastened at her belt loops. Amazing she hadn't lost her meager ace in the hole by now… If it would actually be any use at all. "Me, ugly?" She mocked shortly, biding her time to wrench her wrist free. "Who are you calling ugly, you disfigured little monster?" The gargoyle paused, looking shocked. "You… you _disgusting_ little dog dropping!"

She might have almost felt bad, the way the beast folded in on itself, and then, with a tone that was just marginally more female than before, murmuring under its breath, shaking its head. "No… No, we are the _beautiful_… The mortal girl lies… The…" She'd let go, in her distress, but then turned, suddenly, savagely, displaying every tooth as she lunged at her. "The mortal girl _lies_!"

Sarah yanked the steak-knife free, out, and up, in one smooth movement… Not actually seeing clearly what happened next, as the force of the demon's weight sent her backwards… But none of the discomfort she suffered was anything close to the wail of sheer horror and agony of the thing that had attacked her, pulling away even as its weight collided with hers, shrinking and stumbling away like its… Like _her_ life depended on it. "It stings us!" She shrieked, covering one half of her face with a trembling wing, as she cowered in the dust. "It _burns_ us! It burns us like _iron_!"

Glancing briefly at the serrated steel knife in her hand, Sarah reflected that, in a way, it was. She hadn't even thought of that… She'd expected a flesh wound, at best, but this… She stood quickly, brandishing the deadly weapon at arm's length, and making the creature cower harder into the dust, making tiny, mournful sounds now. "We're leaving," She whispered hoarsely, unconsciously including Blue in on her plans, without any thought that the faery might now think otherwise, "And you're not going to stop us. Right?" Her voice was shaking, her hand was trembling… But she held all the power here, and she knew it. She just didn't quite believe it.

The gargoyle whimpered, pushing her face into the dirt. "Nasty, horrible girl…" She moaned, shaking her head. "Hurting us with iron… How did the mortal girl get _iron, here_?" A solid, pained shudder, and then the creature drew away the wing covering half its face… And Sarah recoiled, physically, against the deep, blackened scar that now sliced the pitiful thing's face in two, deeply scoring across where its eyes would be, and charring the skin wherever the blade had touched. "What have you _done_ to us?" The demon wailed, despairingly.

"I- I didn't mean…" Sarah was taking steps back, her hold on the surprisingly useful weapon growing slack, as she faced the damage she'd inflicted on the creature… Never mind that only moments before, it had been the one attacking her. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"I advise you not to waste your pity, Sarah." A weary voice from just behind her, making her spin in surprise, brandishing her weapon again… Only to find herself face to face with the goblin king. He looked, bemused might be the word, or just plain tired, like it had been days since he'd slept… But he smiled, a bit pointedly, and reached out, not touched the knife, but pressing her hand down, at the wrist, with two fingers. "I find it highly unlikely, Sarah," He mused, stepping closer in what could only be called his usual brazenness, invading her comfort zone yet again, "That you intend to use that on me."

Before she could argue the point, and she was considering it, briefly, if only because she was so used to disagreeing with him, he'd reached out with his other hand, still smiling, and gently unfolded her fingers from the knife's wooden hilt, taking it into his own leather gloved hand. "There," He murmured, stepping away, and lifting the blade, to consider, in the light, "Much better. My, my, my, so much fuss, over such a little thing…" He turned it back and forth, considering it, his lips pursed thoughtfully.

"I-I didn't mean…" She whispered, not sure herself why she kept feeling like she needed to apologize, when all she'd been doing was defending herself. "I mean, I didn't _know_…"

"I'm well aware of that." The goblin king assured her calmly, finally lowering the weapon, and considering her with a vaguely amused air. "You're just forgetting all the old stories, aren't you, precious." It wasn't a question. And it wasn't meant to be answered.

This said though, he turned his attention to the broken thing at his feet, his demeanor immediately changing, as his lip curled in disgust. "As for you, you ungrateful, _worthless _sack of fetid _meat_…" He nudged the whimpering beast with the toe of his boot, as if to reassure himself that he did indeed have its attention, before continuing. "Do I really have to tell you what reasons _I_ have, to brandish this against you as well?" He asked coldly, indicating the knife in his hand… which, admittedly, he was holding as carefully between two fingers as he was able.

"Do you understand at all why I'm angry with you… Or do I have no recourse but to cut those spindly little limbs you call wings, clean off of you, and hang them from the highest precipice in my Labyrinth?" He paced around her, slowly, before reaching down, and with a firm hand around the gargoyle's throat, lifting it, effortlessly, before slamming it into the stone wall behind. "As warning perhaps," He went on, with a low hiss of his own, "To those who might for one instant not understand that whatever else has transpired of late, it is still very _unwise _to upset me?"

She had never heard Jareth sound angry before… And something in his tone was far more terrifying than any tricks or taunts, snakes or magic spells. "You're not going to cut her again, are you?" She whispered, her voice a little shaken at this display of violence, though she wasn't sure herself why it should bother her, seeing a side to the goblin king that just reinforced her idea of him as the villain. "Jareth, you heard her, it's _iron_…"

The goblin king didn't so much as turn, the only sign that he may have heard at all, a small, barely noticeable twitch of his jaw. "I am well aware of what it is, Sarah." He assured her softly, his voice cold as steel itself, "Why else do you think this miserable little waste of magic is doing its best to grind its pathetic body into the stone wall, to get away from it?"

"But…!"

"Be silent, Sarah. This does not concern you, and I am not in the mood to be patient." With this, he turned his attention back to his whining servant, fingers tightened, until his bones were clearly displayed, against the monster's throat.

"Let those who doubt, even for an instant, that my law remains absolute in this world, take note now…" He whispered, death itself in his tone, "I am not a creature to be lightly crossed. And make note yourself, that for every miserable little fool who dares rise up against me now, merely because my days as king have been deemed finished… I will remove one of those precious little rings that you love so much…" A gesture, with the blade of the knife, towards the gargoyle's wing, "Along with the finger that accompanies it." A pause, here, before, with pointed iciness, "Therefore, it may be in your best interest, as one who knows my Labyrinth _so _well, to see that that does not _happen_."

And then, as quickly as the confrontation had begun, it seemed over again, as Jareth released his servant, and stepped back, in one motion, to let it crumble, painfully, into the ground. "I trust," Jareth finished simply, "I am not misunderstood."

Sarah swallowed, hard, as she watched the beaten beast crawl away, whimpering, on its hands and knees… as fast as it possibly could. She didn't say anything… yet.

"It'll be dead in a matter of days." Jareth noted softly, clearly not quite appeased by this little resolution… Before turning, and offering her back her weapon, handle first, taking care not to touch the blade himself. "You may need this again." He added, bitterly.

For a moment she just stared, until he'd turned to walk away, and she suddenly knew she couldn't just leave it at that. "Jareth…" Breathless, with exertion, not awe, Sarah quickly fell into step with the goblin king as he prepared to do another of his vanishing acts, his bit apparently said. "What just happened? What was that all about?"

"It wasn't obvious?" Jareth prompted, a bit shortly, not looking back.

"Nothing's obvious right now…" Sarah denied, slowly smoothing one palm against her hip, the other still not ready to relinquish her only defense, never mind that the immediate threat was gone. "Forget that creature trying to kill me…" And forget, for a moment, the goblin king's cruelty… "What did you mean?" Now, Jareth slowed. "Why would your days as king be finished?"

And with that, he stood still. "Because all actions have consequences, Sarah." He said at last, suddenly none of the fury or warning left in his tone… but only a soft, resigned acceptance. "Even yours."

"Mine?" Now that he wasn't moving away, Sarah stood beside him, for once the one to close the distance between them, and even reaching for his hand. "What does this have to do with me?" Jareth turned, just marginally, and considered her, not speaking. "This- this is about Toby, isn't it?"

"I fear it's far past the point where that matters, dear Sarah." Jareth denied, almost pointedly not pulling away from her.

"But… Because you lost _one time_?" She felt, frustrated, because it wasn't supposed to work that way. Happy endings in stories weren't supposed to have consequences… And again, she was forced to face the idea that this wasn't one of her faery tales. This was _real_.

A small, amused moue curled his lips, as she struggled with this understanding, and he noted, with something like fondness, "One, very important time, Sarah." Lifting his hand, he swept it across the crown of her head, and down her soft hair, in a caress so quick that she didn't even have time to object. "But why the concern? You won. That's all that matters… isn't it?"

Sarah frowned, biting her lip, and met his gaze for longer than she really felt comfortable doing. Consequences. Damn it. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. But what else could she have done? "I- couldn't just let you take him." She said at last, very softly.

"And you didn't." He agreed, still with that small, amused look in place. "Congratulations, Sarah. As for the rest, it's really not your problem anymore, is it?" He drew his hand away, slowly, somehow making the release of her fingers like a lingering touch. "Now, if you'll excuse me… you do seem to have a habit of interrupting me at the most inopportune times, precious."

She didn't immediately understand, and just looked at him with a little frown, before the words clicked, and she blinked, echoing them softly, "Interrupting you…" Somehow, it hadn't occurred to her, with the lengths Jareth had gone to, to make his point to the disobedient demon, that he'd actually been there… to protect _her. _"Jareth…"

"Do try to hurry, Sarah." Jareth interrupted, just a trace of his usual smirk in place, as he offered her a little, dismissive sweep of his hand. "Goodness knows I can't keep watching over you like this forever…"

And then he was gone.

(**break**)


	10. The Goblin Agenda

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

**(BREAK)**

The chapters in this fic are too short for my taste... which presents another problem. Well, it depends on your definition of a problem... Namely, there's no way in the Underground I'm going to be able to wrap this up in thirteen chapters, per the usual. Okay, so probably no one's going to be upset by that... At least it's a new fandom. I'm not _really_ breaking the pattern, just setting a new one...

Okay, a few, non-Sarah viewpoints in this chap. That's why it stands best alone. I hope it works. If it does, please tell me. In detail. ;P Okay, shameless plea for detailed reviews finished... Not that you guys aren't great all the time...

**(BREAK)**

In reality, it wasn't actually so much that he had something important to get back to that made her timing so inopportune… So much as the fact that he'd finally been allowed a brief nap, albeit unintentional, while bent over one more in an increasingly large stack of tomes. And now that he'd returned, of course, he certainly couldn't allow himself the luxury a second time… No. Of course not. Not if he wanted to _win_… Much less for the girl to actually survive long enough that he could.

Not that she hadn't done that fairly well… And that irritating little scab she'd wounded? Backstabbing waste of magic if he'd ever seen one… But dangerous. The fact that she had a weapon on her side, a powerful one here, clearly helping of course. Though the fact that Sarah's use of iron had been unintentional…? He'd thought that was the reason she'd brought the pathetic looking dagger in the first place. That she'd simply intended to defend herself with it, properties aside…

The first time she'd challenged his maze, he'd consistently underestimated her… And lost, because of it. Yet now it seemed the reverse was true. And _still_ she was dancing through his Labyrinth as though she may as well be part of it!

An almost inaudible pat-patting drew his attention, and Jareth lifted his head, with a frown, to consider the lanky, grey skinned goblin who tended the Library of Kings… Wrapped all up in swathes of off-white, in such a way that even he couldn't tell if the creature was male or female. Its head somewhat hung, and swinging, like too heavy a weight on the end of its neck, back and forth just so as it walked.

Never casting so much as a glance at its king, or a glance at what it was doing, it lifted the first of a small stack of books held in the crook of one arm, and placed it, without ceremony, on top of the growing pile of such books, just to the goblin king's right. Nodding away, even when still, as if to a tune only it could hear. Or on a neck too weak to hold up its head for more than a few seconds. Large ears folded back, twitching from time to time. Treating Jareth rather as if he wasn't even there… And certainly had nothing to do with why it was gathering books.

Jareth waited, pointedly, as the creature finished its task, then turned, almost a pivot on one foot, the rest of its body moving in a jerky, off balance way to catch up, making it look like it was sure to fall over at any moment, until it disappeared into the stacks. Never once did it offer so much as a word of acknowledgement, much less the falling over itself sort of terror that Jareth usually inspired in his subjects…

The goblin king's eyes just flicked, dismissively, back to the book he was currently examining. "The underground save me from having to endure librarians." He muttered under his breath, chin propped rather elegantly on one hand… He couldn't easily do anything that wasn't somehow elegant… and considered the twisting script before him, dancing, dizzily, before even his eyes. "Hm. What's the use of the wretched thing anyway, if it can't even find me the right bloody book?"

Another sound, a soft scratching at his side- this time distinctly familiar- quickly brought him from his brooding yet again, and he paused in his reading to find himself looking down at the dog-like urchin of a servant he'd sent out some days before to find a book of laws… And hadn't heard from since. Now the hairball was standing before him, grinning nervously, an enormous red volume some three times the size of his body perched in a rather unbalanced way on its fuzzy top. His little nose twitching, excitedly.

"Found it, have you?" Jareth frowned, removing the book from his servant's head, and acknowledging it with a dismissive flick of his fingers, before considering the hard won tome… "About time." The little goblin wiggled happily, looking pleased as anything, and bobbed on its feet, clearly waiting for its next command, despite the heavy bags under its beady red eyes. For the moment though, Jareth ignored him.

Here it was then… At least one of his questions answered. He lifted his hand, with a second flick of his fingers, and sent the pages flipping wildly, a sudden, cold gust filling the air… And then settling, obediently, on the precise law in question… Which seemed, as it so happened, to fill sixteen pages with all its addendums and bylaws. The extent of the goblin king's reaction though, was to smirk…

And then pause, considering the eager mop top still perched by his side, still wriggling away happily, very much like the lap dog it so resembled. Jareth smiled wanly at the creature, flicking his fingers away in dismissal. "That will be all." He dismissed him, making the goblin pause, tilt its head, and consider him again. "You've done well enough, I suppose."

An explosion of nervous giggles from its tiny frame, and the goblin hopped back and forth from one leg to another, before darting away, eager to brag about his sudden elevation in the goblin king's eyes… If only in his own mind. Jareth watched him go, with one lifted eyebrow, made a soft sound of derision, and turned back to his newest acquisition. Goblins. There was no use trying to understand their strange little motivations…

**_(Interruption)_**

_Flick-pea retreated only as far as the closest stack of books, and with some little effort, and the coordination of long tired limbs, pulled himself rather manageably up the bookcase, giving him a most useful view of the entire library… The bookcase being some twenty seven feet tall, as it were._

_He didn't say a word, twiddling his thumbs absently as he yawned, then, with briefly rapt attention watched a small roach crawl along one section of the wall. It always fascinated him, how those little things got in everywhere… Even the underworld, and the library of kings._

_A sudden, bold squish with the ancient one's hand made him blink, as the taller goblin inspected the smooshed nastiness in its hand, wrinkled its brow, and wiped it off on one of the various layers it wore, giving a barely perceptible nod of satisfaction at having defended its books from the mortal things once again._

_There wasn't much reason to pay attention to the ancient one after that, so inevitably, inexorably, it returned to Jareth. A happy little crack appeared in Flick-pea's maw, and he wiggled, twiddling his thumbs harder. Lately, all anybody could talk about was- not that the goblin king had failed against the girl, or even her reappearance in the labyrinth- but that, for the first time anyone could remember, a goblin king would reign for a second rule._

_In his opinion, it couldn't have happened to a better one. Sure, some of the lesser servants grumbled over it, not being the proper way and all, but most of them were new. Hadn't even lived through more than a handful of king's reigns. Some only knew Jareth… They just didn't have a properly horrible king to compare him to._

_His goblins though… His favorites, as Flick-pea saw it- They were some of the old ones. They even bore their first name, when mortals had long since changed the way they saw everyone else. True, he hadn't been around as long as the ancient one… But he had seen two hundred and seventy-two goblin kings come and go, demons whose tales were still remembered in children's bedtime stories, and he and his knew what could come of a new king._

_Jareth? He took care of the underground. Did his duties without complaint, if with grudging resentment. Rarely inflicted permanent damage… And someone had to really annoy him for that. If a goblin was smart, he didn't take a king with a merciful hand for granted. One more reign was what all the goblins wanted… All the proper goblins, anyway. Even the ancient one._

_Many were the kings it'd never allowed to know its library even existed, much less ever waited on hand and foot…_

_But there was more than that to it. Flick-pea's smile faltered, briefly, as he thought of the girl. There'd been some like her before, mind, but never one like her, just the same. Not that a changeling had never been lost to a mortal before… but this Toby, this one Jareth would have had take his name… He was different. And Jareth's reaction to losing was, interesting._

_Goblin kings never lasted long. It was in their nature. Not really of the Underground, not really of the Mortal World… They always wanted something they couldn't have, and the end result was never… good. Flick-pea rested his chin on his hands, flicking his ears this way and that… Watching the goblin king. The girl could be the key. They were all waiting on this one._

_It was certainly something that had never come up before… The idea of a goblin king they wanted to keep… But then, those of today only called his domain the labyrinth, or the underground._

_Flick-pea remembered days, when it had been called far worse…_

_**(Return)**  
_

Oblivious to his servant's gaze, it actually took a surprisingly short time considering how slowly everything else in this little game had been going, to find exactly the addendum he was looking for… But he read it carefully, word for word, and inference for inference, before leaning back in his chair, and rolling them around in his mind. Imbibing of water, yes, it counted. And yes, the rest of the law went precisely the way he recalled… He always had had a good head for things he could turn to his advantage.

So, partaking of the underground's pleasures, _did_ bind her here. But not irrevocably. That was important. Morever, the more she consumed of the underground's magic, by one means or another- such as, for example, using a spell he'd handcrafted for her on impulse- the more difficult the binding would be to break. But it _could_ be broken.

And that breaking, once the binding itself was suitably powerful, _was _irrevocable. Which meant that, planned or otherwise, her little habit of going against ancient law might actually work in his benefit. It was a simple ultimatum… And one she could never hold against him for offering. Because it was beyond his power to do otherwise. Or _would _be.

To think that normally, he hated _anything _being beyond his power…

Closing the book slowly, he reflected that this, at least, hadn't taken long at all… Disregarding the dozens of hours of constant search it had probably taken to find the tome in the first place.

Now there was just the matter of young Toby… But, he reflected, as he considered the pile of books he'd yet to touch, as well as the enormous stack he'd already gone through, there was little point of that, was there? He was just looking for answers he already knew… Including ones that had never even been bothered to be written.

Why would they? This wasn't supposed to _happen_…

He laid his index finger against his lip, and leaned back in his chair, until he had to balance it magically to keep from being tipped backwards on his head. He turned his gaze at the dreaded pat-patting of the tall goblin's bare feet against the stone… And frowned, making his decision in an instant. "No." He denied simply, coldly, making the creature pause in mid step. "Put them back." With a second, broader wave of his hand, "Put them _all_ back."

And with a lurch of the chair, falling forward until his feet connected with the ground again, and standing, in one fluid motion, he muttered, "I have better things to do…"

**(Break)**

"It's a brick wall!" Hoggle shrieked, stomping his feet in a show of fury, wringing his hands through his hair, and wondering, not for the first time, why he hadn't told off the red headed mountain of hair years ago. "You… You!" He stopped, sharply, and glowered at Ludo, pointing with one shaking hand. "This is all your fault. Oh, you know where Sarah is…" He started walking, with his usual uneven gait, around the larger creature, looking off down the endless passage behind them, which they'd been following for the better part of an hour. "You know where she is, all right… Behind that wall!"

Ludo frowned, not really put off by Hoggle's complaints, but a bit puzzled as to why the wall in front of them, stone, not brick, was so unnaturally silent. Giving it an exploratory push with his knuckles while the dwarf continued to rant, he tilted his head, unsure why they didn't react. A moment later, he grunted, put both hands against the wall, and shoved again, harder… And still no response.

A sorrowful expression creased his face as he realized, much to his sadness, that these rocks were dead. Whatever magic they'd once had, just, pulled out of them. He didn't want to believe it, of course, and tapped one finger, lightly, against one of the smaller rocks… Only to sigh, as yet again, it remained silent. Rocks were his friends. He didn't like to see them like this.

But more than that, now there was no way through.

Dropping his considerable weight in one solid motion, he leaned against the part of the wall, to the side, that was still alive… just stubbornly refusing to allow them through… and sighed again, before turning to take in the sight of his friend.

Hoggle was silent now, squatting in the dust, his knees drawn up to his chest, looking off uselessly at a scrubby weed growing a few feet away. He wasn't cursing anymore. Wasn't kicking things, or throwing things, or yelling at Ludo… His shoulders seemed slumped, and his head slightly hung, one hand wiping, slowly, at his brow. "Sarah…" He could almost be heard, mumbling under his breath.

Ludo considered him, and frowned more deeply. He liked it better when the dwarf was yelling. This heavy quiet was awful. More than a little dejected himself, he drew a circle in the dirt beside him, with one extended finger, then added eyes, a mouth, and long hair. Making it her. "Sarah." He agreed, softly, as lost as to where to find her as Hoggle was now.

"I ain't crying." Hoggle denied stubbornly, though Ludo hadn't said anything of the sort. He wiped one oversized hand across his eyes though, and considered the red yeti, suspiciously, like he really had suggested it. "Just a bit of dust in me eye."

Ludo, less ashamed of his emotions, sucked in a deep, ragged breath, and let it out again, as a low, forlorn wail. Before the surprised Hoggle could think what to do, the yeti was a blubbering, sobbing pile of fur, rolling his head back and forth like an oversized child, unable to contain all the unhappiness bubbling up inside… Smacking the ground with both hands, and rubbing his eyes, from time to time, with an oversized fist.

"Hey… hey now, it's not that bad…" The gruff mannered dwarf found himself mumbling quickly, squat-stepping over, a bit clumsily, and gave the red giant an awkward pat on the arm. "I'm sure Sarah's doing… just fine without us." And that seemed to be all he could think of to say, not reassuring either one of them a whit.

Suddenly, they both became aware of footsteps, approaching in a quick, hurried manner… Many of them. Hoggle looked around, sharply, getting quickly to his feet, and dusting his hands off on his pants. Frowning, uncertainly, down the path the two had followed unto now, which remained, despite the growing nearness of the forced marching, conspicuously empty.

"Well then, what going on now…?" He grumbled, even as Ludo, also on his feet, considered the path as well, , wiping his eyes clear, then cocked his head, listened, and turned, a moment later, to the wall he'd previously been leaning against. Pursing his mouth, and taking a deliberate step back, before poking Hoggle, gently, with one knuckle.

Turning, the dwarf was just in time to see the stones of the wall start to shake, groaning and heaving, and took a step back with a yelp, covering his head… As they suddenly stopped, and slid, without ceremony, into the ground.

Slowly realizing there was no immediate danger from falling rubble, Hoggle lowered his hands, and peered through this new opening, not foolish enough to think that the danger was now passed. Indeed, within seconds, a line of squat, gnarled little olive skinned creatures came parading through, rather officially, turning as they met the far wall, and forming a second row behind the first… For the moment, paying no attention to the two 'trespassers' in the corridor.

And then, just as the last of the eight filed through, abruptly, as one, seeing them. They turned with one unified grunt/shout, brandishing unwieldy looking bronze spears, and glowered at Hoggle and Ludo, now effectively trapped in the corner. Somehow, for goblins, managing to look all business.

It was a bad spot to be in… But in a rare turn of events, Hoggle was at least taller than them, so he puffed his chest out, lifted his head, and waved his hands in broad, dismissive gestures… more or less bluffing. "And what do you think _you're _looking at?" He demanded, taking a step forward…

Only for every goblin to lower their spears, as one, and take a step forward as well.

Hoggle hurried behind Ludo, finding it much easier to bluff at bravado when behind an oversized pile of muscle and fur. Peeking out, not quite timidly he added, in a shaky voice, "Yeah? Well… well, you don't scare us! Right, Ludo?"

Ludo growled, his small eyes looking possibly more worried than Hoggle's. Appearances notwithstanding, he wasn't much of a fighter. Worse, the double line of military-like goblin soldiers didn't seem to be buying his act of bravado, any more than they had his friend's. His growls quickly died, and he just watched them, worriedly, not even Hoggle coming up with any more brave things to say.

The two faced off, the goblins oddly stern-featured and organized… Until one of them paused, abruptly, dropping his spear a little, and lifted his visor, squinting at the two. A moment later, he nudged the goblin next to him, who grunted, possibly, an order to get back into line. The first goblin though, persisted, muttering something unintelligible under his breath, and pointing at the two of them.

This made the second pause, consider them in turn, and then one by one, they all stood down, looking puzzled, a bit unsure what to do, and muttering between each other in a short, incomprehensible tongue. Hoggle watched them, dubiously, before turning his gaze up to Ludo, who seemed utterly baffled, and back again, shrugging.

Finally the eight of them abandoned their formation all together, gathering in a circle, and exchanging low, secretive words with each other, shooting a glance, from time to time, at the two wayward friends. Hoggle was curious enough to creep out from hiding, and lean closer, in an effort to make out what they were saying…

Only for them to turn with a loud grunt of agreement, as one again, and snap back into formation so smoothly that it looked like they didn't have to take more than a step either way in order to do it, facing them again. Hoggle hurriedly scurried back for cover, before peeking out again…

With another, united grunt of agreement, the eight goblins snapped to a salute, and then, without further explanation, turned on their heels, and began marching down the long corridor behind them… Abruptly dropping their military precision, and nudging each other, mumbling, and glancing back, as they went.

Utterly confused as to what had just happened, Hoggle watched them go, not quite willing to believe his good luck… And being himself, not really trusting it. Still, no use looking a gift door in the mouth. "Huh." He cast a half hearted wave of dismissal after the retreating goblins, then started towards the new opening in the wall… And paused, looking back at his companion impatiently. "You coming, or what?"

Grunting his confusion, Ludo shook his head, reflecting again how little sense some of the things in this underground made, and turned without further attempt to reason it through, lumbering heavily towards the opening in the stone.

Still… He paused, just before moving through the opening, and looked back the way they'd gone, now just moving dark spots in the distance. He had the feeling something important had just happened there… Something he just couldn't put his finger on.

He just hoped it wasn't anything bad…

**(End of chapter)**


	11. Consequences

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

(break)

In which... Things happen. I don't know.

(break)

Sarah gazed despondently at the shifting sky, one knee curled to her chest, her back resting, currently, against the remains of what might have once been a mighty oak… Now reduced to charred wood, and rotting bark. Normally, she'd actually give a damn about how she was going to get something like that out of her clothes… But then of course, her current outfit was pretty much beyond saving, by this point.

Biting her lower lip, she lowered her gaze to the four inch long woman draped gracefully across her reclining leg, and debated her options. She'd given Blue the last of the food she'd thought to bring with her… More eager, at the moment, for continued company, than a soothing of the tightness in her gut. With morning, who knew what would happen… But for tonight at least, she wasn't alone.

All in all, these were the sort of rationalizations that usually shaped her life. Mortal and otherwise. Try to make what she had now make sense, and worry about tomorrow when the sun came up again.

But she hadn't brought enough food for two days, much less… Actually, she had no realistic reference for just how long she'd been in the underground now. She had noticed though, that as time went by, any lingering sense of denial that all this could be happening, gave way to bruised knees, tangled hair, a hungry belly, and an all over sense of acceptance of the increasingly possible.

And the weird thing was, she didn't mind. At the moment, as hungry as she was, she just rested one splayed hand over the lid of her thermos, considered the sky, and wondered what it would be like to go back to her own world again. Whether all this would, against all logic, start to feel like a dream again.

Running her fingertips delicately along Blue's extended wing, she was debating, just for the sake of thinking about it, what it would be like to live in the Underground forever…

-When plodding footsteps on the broken stone, accompanied by low, muttered cursing, brought her back to the present very quickly. Scooping up the now half awake faerie, she perched her, without thinking, one her shoulder, and scrambled quickly to her feet, not sure what she'd be facing now…

Only to pause, everything in her mind, everything in her world, for one instant, grinding to a slow halt, as some of the words reached her, too familiar to ignore. "You and your stupid rocks! You… I don't think you know _where _you're going! I'd have more luck with this stupid ma-"

By this point, the two of them had rounded the corner, and the gruff-looking dwarf's words broke off, abruptly, as his eyes met hers. Slowly, his face creased into a smile, and he lifted his hands, in something like prayer or relief. "Sarah!" He yelled, abandoning all attempts at standoffishness as his ungainly legs quickly crossed the distance between them, and before Sarah could think to do more, he'd thrown his arms around her waist, burying his face in the soft part of her stomach.

"Hoggle…" It felt like her strength had been stolen away, and for a moment she couldn't breathe right… She didn't crouch down, so much as fall, ignoring the protest of her abused knees, as she took her old friend into her arms again, and…

"Hey! HEY!" He pushed at her, awkwardly, as she tried to kiss his forehead, looking flushed, confused, and a bit scared. "Don't _do_ that!"

Sarah paused, actually listening for once. "Don't do what?" She whispered, smiling, slender tears finally tracing their way down her cheeks. "You silly thing, do you know how much I've missed you?"

"Well, don't _kiss_ me…!" He protested, exasperated…

Only to lose her attention completely as she moved, a bit jerkily, to her feet again, as quickly as she could, almost tackling his companion to the ground in her excitement. "Ludo!"

The yeti wrinkled his face in a happy, goofy grin, and enveloped the girl in his long, powerful arms. "Sarah!" He yelled, his breath blasting her full in the face, smelling vaguely of fish and chewed leaves. "SAR-AH!" He lifted her, bodily, into the air, and began swinging her around, leaving her torn between laughing, and trying not to have the breath squeezed out of her completely.

Something was _right _again. Something that had been missing, something that had been torn from her chest, and never healed right, was back where it belonged. And she was laughing, and crying, and it wasn't long before she ended up on her knees again, wiping her tears from her face with her tattered shirt sleeve, grinning like anyone who's just had a really good day.

Having laughed so hard she hiccupped, twice, it took her a moment to realize that, somewhere in the excitement, she'd lost Blue. Feeling too good to be worried, she cast a smiling glance around, expecting to see her somewhere close by… And wasn't disappointed. Slowly, a bit uncertainly, perhaps even recognizing the dwarf as the source of many annoyances in the past, Blue floated down to the crown of the girl's head, taking up a handful of dark hair in either hand, as she watched them.

Hoggle, sharp fellow that he was, didn't miss that at all, and paused from his own deeply felt laughter at the sight of one of his own long seated annoyances. "Um, Sarah," He offered, getting back to his own feet, and moving his hand, uncertainly, towards the faery, like he meant to pluck it from her head, probably ungently, "You've got a…"

"Don't!" Sarah quickly caught his hands, her heart beating faster for just a breath, before she smiled again, things in her world finally beginning to fall back in order, and adding, gently, "She's my friend."

For about thirty seconds, Hoggle just stared… Then suddenly threw his hands up, in an instant going from overjoyed to, strangely, deeply angry. "_Now _she's making friends with _faeries_…!" He yelled, briefly forgetting how hard he'd struggled to get back to her side as frustration and hurt feeling spewed forth, after so long of an absence. He jutted his thumb at his ribs, turning his head up to meet her gaze, and demanded, miserably, "I thought _I _was your friend!"

Sarah stared, astonished at the sudden about face. "But… You are!" She assured him quickly, reaching out to take his hands again…

Only for him to throw her touch down, at contact, and yell, in as raw a tone as she'd ever heard from the guarded man, "Then why didn't you come _back_?"

She fell very silent, just staring at him, then slowly, lifted her gaze to Ludo, to see if he felt the same way too. The giant looked uncomfortable, pulling at the fur on his arms, and shifting his feet. "Sarah…" Was all he offered softly, under his breath… The one word too, somehow asking why she'd been away so long.

"Ludo…" She looked at him helplessly, then down at Hoggle again. How did she explain it? How did she tell two of the best friends she'd ever had, that she hadn't seen them in over two years, because she'd begun to doubt they even existed? Because, she'd been trying to grow up, and leave childish things behind… And they were childish things?

For a moment, she didn't say anything. Then she just sort of turned her legs, slowly, until she was sitting, and regarded her feet, like somehow they had all the answers. "I'm sorry." She whispered, for once in her life, not making excuses, or blaming anyone else. What did it matter if she'd lost her dreams, and couldn't call them anymore? She was the one who'd _lost _them. "I never meant for this to happen."

Her eyes lifted to the dwarf again, who looked, suddenly, less angry, and more uncomfortable, like he didn't like seeing her upset. Thinking it was his fault. "I never meant to lose you. Any of you."

At first, Hoggle didn't say anything… Then, his head bent, rubbing his chin, digging his toe into the dirt- basically doing anything he could do to keep from looking at her- Hoggle grunted, a bit grudgingly, "Yeah, I know. I mean, it's not that I really _thought _you would come back… No one ever does… But it's just-" He finally turned his eyes back to her, just sort of looking at her from the sides of them. "You're my friend, Sarah."

"You're my friend too, Hoggle." Sarah whispered, not quite ready to forgive herself for something that, after all, might not have been entirely her fault. "You're all my friends… You, Ludo, Blue, Sir Didymus…" She broke off, a little suddenly, as she realized now what she should have sooner. "Oh, Didymus…" She looked around for him vainly. "He's not with you?"

"Him?" Hoggle gave a dismissive sort of wave, like she just shouldn't be worrying herself about that at all. "Oh, I know where _he _is…"

Something inside Sarah sagged with relief, while her face lit up with a smile again. "You do? Oh Hoggle, that's wonderful!"

"_That's _wonderful?" He muttered under his breath, still trying to sound annoyed. "You just find _us_, and now instead of celebrating or anything, you wanna run off now and find _him_, just like that?"

But if he'd had legitimate reason to be upset before, Sarah knew him too well to believe that the foul mooded man was really upset now. "Oh Hoggle…" She sighed, wiping away the last of the tears from before, still clinging stubbornly to her face. "I'm really, really happy to see you… You know that. But things won't be right again until I've found _all _my friends."

"Huh." Hoggle gave sort of a half hearted swipe with his hand. "I suppose." Then though, he paused, and looked a little uncomfortable again. "It's just, uh… I don't know if we can get there from here, exactly."

Sarah just looked at him, not yet understanding. "What do you mean?"

Hoggle made a frustrated gesture with his hand, wiping the palm of the other across his chin. "Well, it's _Jareth_." He growled simply, like it should be obvious that anything going wrong was the goblin king's fault. "He's changed the whole damn thing around!" Scratching his head for a moment, before he turned back, admitting, a bit like it embarrassed him, "I don't, exactly, know my way through it anymore."

"Oh." Somehow she'd just assumed that all the residents of the underground were able to follow this sort of thing… On instinct or something. "Um… Then how'd you find me?"

"I didn't." Hoggle explained, a little crossly. "_He _did." Gesturing in Ludo's direction. "Following _rocks_, or something…" A halfhearted shrug, to show what he thought of that. "As for me? Ah, I mostly been hanging out in the forests on the east edge of the Labyrinth, meself…" And he'd clearly been about to go off on some tangent about that, before something seemed to occur to him, quite suddenly. Something that touched his cheeks with just a trace of embarrassment. "Oh! That reminds me… I, uh, got something for you."

Sarah blinked, her tired mind taking a minute to turn to this new line of thought, and for a moment she just looked confused. "For me?" She echoed, puzzled, as she settled her weight forward a little, resting her arms across her lap. "What is it?"

"It's, uh, not much, you see…" Hoggle frowned deeply, patting his hip from time to time as he mustered up his courage, before using semi-clumsy fingers to unwind a twine wrapped something at his hip, not quite looking at her. "Not much… But I made it meself."

Hesitantly, he handed her the thickness of wood, trying to smile, and in the end, resorting to his usual feign of gruff indifference, kicking adamantly at the uneven stone in a effort to show how much it wouldn't bother him if she didn't like it.

Sarah took the carving, weighty in her hands, and about the length of her forearm, with roughly hewn carvings etched from the aged wood, and considered, with slow surprise, her own features gazing back at her from the marks he'd cut in place. There she was… somehow just as she'd been the first time he'd seen her. Younger, somehow defiant, but with a smile… Her hair wild, her blouse, ironically, the same one she'd worn at the beginning of this new journey, now torn pretty well… Something in her eyes that made her remember someone she'd almost forgotten being.

Her fingers traced what should have been rough cuts, what looked like rough cuts, but which under her fingers were worn smooth and soft, like someone else had run their hands over this carving countless times, remembering, like she was now. And… her stomach kind of hurt.

It wasn't just her, missing them. They'd been waiting for her to come back. And it had been _years_…

"Oh, Hoggle…" The words barely escaped her in a breath, and she fell forward, onto one hand, using the other arm to encircle his chest, and despite their difference in sizes, find her way to being held, in an oddly easy way, in the dwarf's arm, Hoggle supporting her weight without complaint, her head rested in the groove of his shoulder. "You don't know how much I've needed you…"

Hoggle made a short, thick sound, not quite identifiable as any one in particular, and patted her back gruffly, his face, just marginally, turned away, so she wouldn't see how twisted up his own features were, with trying not to let his emotions overwhelm him. "Well, uh, that's just fine then, Sarah… You're here now, and… And if you need me, I… I ain't going nowhere."

For reasons she desperately refused to dwell on, that just didn't make her feel as much better as it should have…

Pushing herself back, gently, Sarah took a slow, deep breath, and belatedly made an attempt to take stock of the situation. Two of her friends, back. A new friend, made. No sign of Didymus or Ambrosias. No telling what Jareth was up to.

And so far, no trace of her missing dreams.

She closed her eyes, briefly, before opening them again, considering Hoggle, and, well aware of the irony of asking such a question, noted, with a wane smile, "I don't suppose you brought anything to eat?"

(Break)

Jareth ignored, for now, the procession of goblin soldiers circling the throne room, stopping from time to time to exchange brief, furious bursts, with random members of his inner following. True, from time to time he lifted his face from his hand, and considered them, absently, but without any real concern. His goblins revolting, after all, was the last thing concerning him. And not because they were dumb as bricks… Which, admittedly, some were.

Finally though, his curiosity got the best of him, and he forced himself to sit a little straighter in his throne, waggling one finger, silently, in the captain's direction.

Immediately, the squat character shot to as straight a stance as he could, saluted… And then, any trace of dignity lost, waddled over on his mismatched legs, thick as a bundle of twigs, and grinned up at his lord and master eagerly, waiting to see what was demanded of him.

"What," Jareth murmured vaguely, gesturing his hand in a way that indicated the man's former waggling around the room, "What is all that?"

"Ah!" If possible, the goblin beamed even wider, showing every discolored, broken, or missing tooth, shrugging his shoulders in a sheepishly proud way… And launched into a rambling jumble of short, nearly illegible words, that kept even the goblin king hard pressed to keep up.

"Wait… Wait." Jareth cut him off with a sigh, holding up a lace ensconced hand for silence. "Again, you little twit. And try _enunciating_, would you?"

The goblin captain took a slow, exasperated breath, closed his eyes, then opened them, and tried again. "Friends of Sarah, Sarah mortal, trapped in dead end. Yes, yes. Trapped and stuck. We surround them. Then, good, good, we see them. Say, hup!" And he snapped to a salute, indicating what he'd done then. "Off they go. Fast, fast. To Sarah human girl. Fast, fast." And again, he grinned, proudly, like he'd accomplished some great feat.

Jareth considered him, vaguely bemused. "Let me see if I have this straight… The two of them, the yeti and… Hog-whatever, they were trapped in my Labyrinth… And you and your men took it upon yourself to show them the correct path to lead them straight to Sarah?"

Again the goblin captain just grinned, like there was no possibility in any universe that his master could ever find fault with this. "Yep, yep! Off they go!" He made a hurrying motion with his hands. "Fast, fast. Find Sarah-human-girl." He looked very pleased with himself. "Find Sarah, find dreams, good, good!"

"Hmm." Jareth considered, briefly, whether the little twits could actually be somehow aware of his plans for the girl, or if this was just one more occurrence in their apparently endless strings of dumb luck. He also wondered if there was any use chastising the little cretin for taking his own initiative in the situation, when he himself suffered no complaint for the outcome. "Just…" A flick of his fingers, dismissively, "Go back to what you were doing, would you?"

The goblin snapped to a salute, dashed off back to his company, and after a short, garbled conversation, they all cheered, and someone threw confetti. He never could manage to find out where they were getting the blasted stuff… But then, any torn up bit of scrap was confetti to a goblin.

Jareth lost interest in their little games, and reclined across the throne again, letting his head fall back until he could consider the vast, distant ceiling of his precious palace. "It's not as if I didn't know they'd found her…" He muttered under his breath, telling himself that he wasn't really losing absolute control over his kingdom… Even his goblins, in one way or another. "But these days even the goblins have agendas, it seems. Hmm. Still, not entirely useless creatures…"

He considered, briefly, one of the winged… things, that lived so far up in the rafters of the castle, that they rarely came into view. Twisted, even by the standards of the underground, hiding from sight in the places no light ever shone, scurrying away whenever they happened to be seen. This one though, remained still, watching him, even while it tried to hide within the wisp of its own shadow, before moving back, slowly, handhold over foothold, and vanishing again.

It was easy to forget how many creatures called him master… Most of them he simply couldn't be bothered with, and had gone most of his rule doing his best to ignore. Because he could afford to. Because none of them dared to rise up against him. To questions his hand.

But if even the rats in the rafters were holding his gaze now…

The underground was vast. The wilds of it stretched far beyond his Labyrinth, and for the most part, he'd always pretended it didn't exist. Even he knew that all that, out there, was too much for one man to rule. And a sort of, agreement, had come up, between his Labyrinth, and those wilds, one not crossing into the other…

But he'd always operated under the understanding that if he had traversed into those old worlds, his will would still be law. He ruled on weight of birthright, on magic old as time, on unquestioning loyalty from the most horrible and the most meek, equally. This was his domain, and no one questioned him…

Save for one, stubborn mortal girl. That was the way it had been. But old laws were changing… He'd spent four years solidifying his power, not just as a matter of blind loyalty, but in a new sort of game, of discovering who still held to him, as king, and who now considered, with his allotted time at an end, for the throne to be held in a sort of vacuum of power…

It wouldn't go to war though. That wasn't the way of things here. There would be, dissent. Questions. Second glances. But mostly, they would wait. Wait to see if he failed again. Wait to see if he showed weakness…

Even wait, many of them, to see if the old ways were ending, now that 'the line' had been broken, and what that would mean for them. But he knew damn well that there wasn't a single one of them that aspired to his throne. No, that would be too easy… It was far more likely that the Underground would just descend into chaos. And even if it did, that still wouldn't free him from his duties as king.

And somehow, still, with Sarah so close to being part of his world forever, that didn't bother him nearly as much as it probably should…

(Break)

Sarah picked at the small pile of cracked nuts and dried meats that Hoggle had laid out for her, not foolish enough to ask what sort of animal the latter were from, and was oddly sure, in the part of her mind not occupied by what to do next, that it might well be the best meal she'd ever eaten.

Flicking a brightly colored beetle away from a gnarled looking root, that too went between her teeth, the root, not the beetle, and then, with the worst of the ache in her belly finally assuaged, she sat back a little with a sigh, still chewing, and reflected, briefly, on what a sight she must be. "Thank you." She murmured, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, more from embarrassment, than any actual need.

"Don't mention it." Hoggle mumbled, watching her with a sort of acute curiosity, like something about the way she'd just tucked into his offering so easily, fascinated him. "Um… You sure that's enough?" He jerked his thumb behind him. "I'm sure the big guy here could find a fish, or something…" This last sort of drawn out as he looked around, at the apparent lack of any nearby sources of water. "Somewhere…"

"Hnn." Ludo nodded his weight head, grinning, like that would be just the easiest thing in the world… His small, excited eyes, still fixated on her like a happy child, seeing an old friend. "Fish…" Ludo agreed, moving his massive frame in one, clumsy motion, and somehow managing not to spill back on his rear, but rise to his feet. "Uh…" He looked one way, then the other, and then his grin split again, and he pointed off to their right. "Fish!"

Sarah didn't ask how he knew. Hoggle had said the man followed the voices of rocks to get this far, and considering how easily said rocks had responded to his voice, the last time she was here, that didn't seem entirely out of the question. But at the moment, though she could really go for a fish, or, something, she had more important concerns on her mind.

"Ludo…" She stood as well, and caught him by the arm… The red giant froze in mid-motion, fascinated, not by her, but the nearness of the tiny faery, perched fearlessly on her shoulder. "Ludo, we need to find Sir Didymus, he-" She broke off, as she realized he was no longer paying the least bit of attention to her. Instead of getting annoyed, she couldn't help it, she smiled. "Ludo, do you like Blue?"

"Bloo." Ludo murmured, reaching one oversized finger towards the small woman, making Sarah, unconsciously, take a step back, well aware of her penchant for biting. Ludo, doggedly, just followed. "Pretty…"

"Wait, Ludo, don't…" Sarah tried to warn him- Just as Ludo yanked his massive arm back with a howl, and the air was filled with the sound of unintelligible cursings, courtesy of the slighted faery. "Blue!" Sarah yelled, frustrated with the faery, though she'd known damn well that was going to be the outcome. "Look what you did!"

Ludo stood there, wailing, holding his affronted finger in the air, and rolling his head from side to side… Only for a moment, before baring his teeth at the faery, now darting from place to place in the air, with increasing agitation, and doing his best to sound frightening… If only to keep from being bitten again.

"No, Ludo, don't do that…" Blue darted back and forth above their heads with increasing uneasiness, and dodged, easily, when Ludo swiped a hand towards her, which Sarah quickly caught. "Ludo, it's alright, Ludo… You just scared her, she doesn't know you… Ludo…"

"Damn faeries…" Hoggle muttered in the background, offering his own flailing arms, and short, clumsy jumps, as he seemed to decide as well that it was time to swat her out of the air.

"Hoggle, stop it! Ludo…

And then she was gone.

"Blue!" This last came out as a cry as the faery vanished down the length of the corridor, her immediate mannerisms making it clear she had no intention of coming back. "No, no, no… what have you done…" She barely took the time to grab her nearly empty pack from the floor of the labyrinth, and shove the thermos inside- and with no mind to where she might be going, or what dangers it might hold, Sarah ran down the corridor after her friend, as quickly as her tired legs could carry her.

"Sarah!" Hoggle bellowed, quickly starting down the path as well, and far more aware than his friend of just how dangerous the Labyrinth could be. "Sarah, wait! You don't know what's down there… _Sarah_!" When she gave no signs of slowing, too caught up in the moment, as usual, to consider consequences, he sighed, grabbed Ludo by the arm, and started pulling him that way as well, as fast as his short legs could carry him. "Well, come on…!" He grunted shortly, trying to keep the girl in sight, and pull the red headed giant after him. "We have to go after her…!"

Ludo, finally noticing that she was vanishing from sight, seized up for an instant in the sudden fear that she was going away again, going away like before… And then bellowed, heartbroken, and started stumbling along the path, half dragging Hoggle as he went, almost falling every few steps, a creature not built for speed, and crying out, desperately…

"_SARAH!"_

(End of chapter)_  
_


	12. Wet Feathers

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

(break)

Okay, couple of things here. First, I've been a little bit worried about my upcoming move in three weeks or so... The new place is a bit out there, and it seemed for a while like no one who offered good internet worked in the area. At all. This would have halted all my internet activity... Including this. But now one of the places changed their mind, so it seems I'm good. Don't know how that works, but hey, whatever. If I want to do more after this, I can.

Second... Chances are, I'll get my hundredth review for this fic this time around. Just noting. Kinda hope it's something unique... I've only ever gotten one hundred reviews on one fic before, so, yeah, kinda way cool.

(break)

The labyrinth changed, if a person wasn't paying attention… And somehow, the more desperate the situation, the faster it changed… Though for all she knew, she could have quite reasonably come down this same path with a clear head, and the result wouldn't have been any different.

But now, the sound of water was growing louder, down the path that Ludo had promised fish, and with every step she was finding it harder to keep her purchase, the stones loose and crumbling, the path growing steadily steeper…

She fell again and again, her eyes desperately searching the sky, and not paying enough attention to the precarious footing below. She'd scrabble with her hands on the sharp stones when she fell, pushing herself back to her feet, somehow managing each time to avoid injury, and as a consequence, only growing more careless as she went. "Blue!" Her voice high, wavering in panic as she cried out for the vanished faery, desperately, stubbornly refusing to lose any more friends. "Blue!"

"Sarah!" Hoggle caught her arm, trying to hold her back as he finally caught up, more due to Ludo's speed than his own, and was thrown back, as without thinking, she struggled on… Only to be caught, a second time, and far more fastly, by Ludo's strong arm, accompanied by his deep, worried rumble.

"Don't… Sarah…"

"Ludo?" She twisted in his arms, uselessly, a few times, then just looked up at him miserably, chest heaving for breath, her thoughts finally beginning to slow, and make sense… And still refusing to focus on anything but the need to chase after her small friend. "Please, Ludo, let me go. I have to find Blue…"

The giant frowned, tilting his head, and turned his concerned gaze from her, to some unidentifiable spot in the distance. "Blue?"

"Yes, Blue!" Sarah sagged, just a little, as her exhaustion slowly began to catch up with her, regardless of the adrenaline currently coursing through her veins. "Blue… Ludo, she's not a bad person. She doesn't know you… and you're really big… And please, please, help me find her?"

"Hnn." Ludo grunted, softly, but didn't immediately release her. Instead he turned his head, and regarded, not five feet to the side, the sharp drop at the side of the path, listening intently, for a moment, to the unmistakable sound of angry water. "Sarah…" Gone were the walls, hemming them in. The paved stones. The wild growth. They'd ended up in a very different part of the labyrinth, and if she'd taken the time to wonder about it, she probably would have found it strange.

At the moment, she barely recognized how lucky she'd been not to fall into the deep, dark river flowing below, gurgling its whispered warning to anyone with sense to hear.

Slowly, Ludo released her, Hoggle just watching uncertainly, clearly not sure why she was making such a fuss over a useless little pest. "It's just a faery, Sarah…" He tried, an attempt to reason with the girl…

Only to have her shoot him a short, helpless glance, run her fingers through her bangs in frustration, and whisper, exhaustedly, "She's my _friend_."

And that pretty much shut up anything else he could have said to argue about it… Because, well, a faery might not deserve to have a friend like Sarah… But he'd never been too sure he did either. She was her _friend_. That made it his job, as her friend as well, to help the girl find her.

"Oh… all right." He sighed, more than a little used to being wrangled into ridiculous situations for her by now anyway. What was one more? At least they were just looking for a faery… It could have been worse. It could have been a troll. Probably would be, someday… "We'll help you find her. Just…" And he pointed at her, sternly, "No more running off! Understood?"

Sarah nodded, mutely, taking another, belated look around, and acknowledging, to herself at least, that her friend's words made sense. Getting herself killed helped no one… And chasing after the tiny creature all pell-mell might just make her fly away faster.

Getting a little more bearing under her feet, she turned her face into the wind, and considered, briefly, the absence of what she was chasing. Didn't mean she couldn't find her, of course. This was the Underground. Nothing was impossible here. She'd spent the last four years of her life believing that… "This is the only way to go." She said at last, a little more rational, now that she'd been forced to be. "So… we just keep walking, and eventually we find her." She glanced at Hoggle, and Ludo. "Right?"

Hoggle hesitated, one brief instant… Blessedly not long enough for the distracted girl to see. "Oh, yes, definitely!" He agreed hastily, well aware of just how impossible the Labyrinth could be when it wanted, and certain, many times over, with a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, that it wouldn't be that easy. Because it was _never_ that easy. "We'll find her, all right. Just, uh, keep going down this path… Let's get going… Just, uh, stay away from the edge there…" He himself for example, was practically hugging the cliff wall that hemmed them in…

"Right." Calmer now, more confident, Sarah took Ludo's hand, and tugged him on, when he seemed just a little more reluctant to follow the narrow path uphill. "Let's go Ludo… You'll be fine. I've got you…"

"But who's got you…?" Hoggle muttered under his breath, shaking his head at the uselessness of trying to reason with the girl. "Damn it… I can't believe I'm going to get meself killed over a stupid faery…"

They walked in silence after that, Hoggle glancing at her worriedly from time to time, his lips pressed into a thin line… But she was careful now, and despite the exhaustion in her legs, she managed to keep her feet, now that she was paying more attention. He didn't let his guard down though, far too aware of all the things that could go wrong in the world, and walked with one hand, out, fingers tracing across the uneven rock wall, musing in some part of his mind not currently dwelling on the imminent danger they surely faced, that some parts of the labyrinth no longer seemed to fit in the confines of a winding maze. Count on Jareth to get bored… And that of course, could only mean trouble…

Ludo though, seemed to have calmed down a bit, and was humming under his breath, his long arm swinging where it held Sarah's, his eyes fixed more on the sky than the dangers at hand. He didn't seem to be looking for Blue, not actively anyway, but admiring the twisting patterns of light that seemed to fill the heavens here, like an offering at the edge of day, purples and bands of gold, not dark enough to be night, but about the right color for it. He doubted Sarah had even noticed… She seemed to find it just a little too easy to take whatever the Labyrinth threw at her these days, in Hoggle's opinion.

Before he could think of the right way to say so though, Sarah stopped, sharply, and stood up on her tiptoes, staring pointedly at a spot some distance ahead of them. "Blue?" The name fell from her lips with a sense of relief, and she started forward again, quickly, dropping Ludo's hand as she rushed off to greet her friend. "Blue, there you are, I was so worried…"

"Sar-AH!" Hoggle yelled, running after her again, and finding his breath hard to catch as both the girl, and the yeti, moved past to leave him behind with little to no effort. "I thought- I thought I told you- Damn it, Sarah!"

And then he collided with something large, red, and hairy, and sprawled backwards again, landing on his back across the stone, and looking up, in frustration… At Ludo's butt. "Damn it!" He roared, having been pushed just a little too far, even for him. "Get outta the way!"

Ludo, looking back, saw his friend on the ground, and stepped, conscientiously, out of the way, reaching down to help him. "I don't need your help!" Hoggle spat, swatting the large hand out of the way. "I just need you to stop getting in my-"

Sarah wasn't paying attention to either one of them… The path had come to a final, sharp break, with the sheer face all tumbling a good fifteen feet straight down into blacker than pitch water, roiling thickly, either with the current, or something beneath the surface.

Blue perched, some twenty feet away, on the edge of a rope bridge that spanned the chasm between the sharp drop-off, and where the path continued on the other side… Not more than thirty feet of open space, with a drop that wouldn't kill her if she fell… At least not right away. But the recent reconstruction of the labyrinth aside… That bridge looked like it had been there a long time. And after her last encounter with them, she wasn't much predisposed to trust bridges in the labyrinth anyway.

Standing there, at the edge, the wind whipping in her face from the strength of the rushing water below, she considered the tiny girl, watching her, not budging from her place, certain that Sarah wouldn't come after her. "Blue…" A whisper. "Come here, please."

Blue just looked away, being stubborn.

Sarah considered the bridge again, reaching out, tentatively, and giving the ropes a good shake, before yanking her grasp back. They were heavy, thick… A bit slick with water and slime, but rough enough to hold a purchase. She tested them, again, a little more certainly. It looked strong. She could do this. No problem.

She glanced back at Ludo and Hoggle, too busy exchanging shouts and unhappy mutterings to be paying the attention they should have been, and decided to herself, quickly, that this was for the best. "Stay there, Blue." She murmured, her voice barely audible over the disagreements of her friends, "I'm coming to get you. I'll be… right there." And she'd probably get a good nip for it too…

The first step was easy, the wood held up under her weight just fine, and she gave a short, satisfied nod to herself, both hands so tightly held to the ropes on either side that the paleness of her bones showed through the skin. "No problem…" She said again to herself, looking down, briefly, and not faltering more than a heartbeat, before moving on, her gaze now fixed on Blue. "Hold on, I'm coming…"

Blue finally turned, and considered her with sort of a puzzled air, as if utterly unable to conceive why this mortal was walking across a moldy old bridge to get to her. Never mind that it was the only way out of this part of the labyrinth anyway… probably. Slowly the faery got to her feet, watching her… Then began to hum, a little uncertainly, under her breath, twitching her wings, like she was getting ready to fly away again… Or try to swoop in, and rescue Sarah.

"This is easy…" Sarah muttered under her breath, as much to convince herself as her friends…

Who chose about that instant to start paying attention again, as Hoggle realized belatedly no one was scolding him for upsetting Ludo. "Sarah?" The dwarf muttered, looking this way and that… Finally turning, and looking down the way they'd come, utterly unable to fathom, for the moment, that maybe she'd just kept on going. "Sarah…?"

Ludo frowned, poking Hoggle's shoulder, and pointed towards the girl, now more than halfway across the bridge. Hoggle's eyes got wide, and his jaw dropped, and for an instant, he couldn't say anything, too afraid of startling her into falling. "Uh, um… Sarah…?" He managed at last, just a little shakily. "You, uh, you be careful there, you hear me?"

"I'm being careful." She assured him, not quite looking back over her shoulder, but paying _very_ close attention to how she placed her feet…

Ludo saw them first. Considering what they were, maybe he should have seen them sooner… But his small eyes turned from Sarah, as Hoggle continued to fuss over her, and squinted at the rocky cliffside before them… Most pointedly just adjacent to where Sarah was currently crossing.

There was nothing there but stone… But here and there, regardless, tiny pebbles were coming loose, and falling, carelessly, down its face. Hoggle watched, ignoring his friends for a moment, and shrugged his heavy shoulders, trying to throw off the sense of uneasiness currently settling between them. After an uncertain moment, he took a few steps closer… Then turned back to the girl, just as she reached Blue…

He didn't see the long, sinuous stone creatures unfurl their rocky coils, once they were no longer being watched, and lift their faces, jagged features and pits of black regarding the vulnerable mortal girl below them. Long talons clicked, just once, from each, sharp tips on their single pair of limbs, like a signal…

And then, as a one, they were rushing down the cliff-side towards her, no sound more than a whispered rasp to mark their passing as they flowed more like water than stone down the uneven face… Hoggle saw them, having started across the bridge himself, and his eyes grew wide, his jaw going slack. "Golems…" He whispered, for one, horrible instant, frozen in place as Sarah turned, and saw them flowing towards her.

The first one hit about her middle, the second and third each grasped one shoulder in their powerful limbs, and then the rest just sort of fell on her, a living rockslide, lifting her from the bridge in eerie silence as her hands flew out to seek some sort of purchase… Not leaving so much as a scratch on the ancient bridge as they flowed over the wood, and under the ropes, with long practiced ease, carrying her some seven feet out into nothing from the sheer force of their forward momentum-

And then just falling.

Ludo was roaring, bellowing his fury and panic, and Sarah, Sarah hadn't even had time to scream, and somewhere, a tiny, terrified voice was filling the air with wordless shrieks, and Hoggle… He was useless. He couldn't do a damn thing to save her. She was already gone.

Still bellowing, Ludo thundered forward, clearly with the intent of throwing himself into the dark water after her. Hoggle snapped his jaw shut, and in a moment of sheer, blind panic, caught the giant by the arm, and with strength he shouldn't have had, managed to drag him to a stop. "No! No! Damn it, you can't save her! You'll just get yourself killed too! Sarah wouldn't want…!"

Sarah. Sarah. _Sarah_. He twisted his head, eyes wild and frantic, and looked behind him at the deep river. Seeing her, in his mind's eye, down there. Struggling for breath as she sank deeper into the icy currents. Dragging down by those coils, slowly crushing her. "S-Sarah…" The word fell from his lips almost lifelessly.

Releasing Ludo, Hoggle found his fingers working with his vest, as his own warnings forgotten, he stumbled unsteady to the edge himself. H-Hold on, Sarah." He rasped, terrified out of his mind, and still moving forward, quickly, regardless. "H-Hold on, I'm coming!"

-And then something fell past him. Something from above, a sense of white and gold, moving faster than his eyes could follow, and he stepped back, in surprise, as it cut the water like a knife, the surface peeling back silently, a good five to seven feet straight down, before the water fell in on itself again, with a little exhausted sound.

This was followed by an instant of stillness. An instant where nothing happened, where the two just stood there, silently, not sure if whatever had just attacked was going to kill their friend, or save her, and all too aware that they were helpless to do anything either way.

And then it rose up in the water, slowly, like a wisp of red, pluming from below, and then slowly blossoming across the surface… Blood. And before Hoggle could fall to his knees, even as he was falling, something else rose from the black water, gold and white, moving up against the stone, drawing something limp and brown and white behind.

He threw her, with some small effort, over his shoulder, and then began climbing the rocky face of the sheer drop with his bare hands, pulling both their weight. For a moment, as the two of them neared the ledge, he looked up, and steely blue gray eyes met the dwarf's…

Hoggle scrambled back, his chest heaving, before coming to the far side of the path, his back touching stone, and falling, shakily, to the ground. Jareth. _Jareth_. What was he _doing_?

The red giant on the other hand, reached down, and offered the goblin king the strength of his arm, pulling the two of them up with a grunt, and then backing away, slowly, until he'd joined Hoggle, some distance back.

Not quite rising to his feet, Jareth lifted her from his shoulder, and set her down across the stone… Somewhat ungently. Like he was irritated. Then just sort of watched her, frowning, as she lay there, gasping for breath, fighting the unconsciousness that was still doing its best to overwhelm her… And when she finally looked up, disoriented and confused, greeting her flatly, with a disapproving, "I expected better of you, Sarah. Are you _actively _trying to get yourself killed now?"

For about the length of a minute, Sarah just stared at him, his question clearly not registering. Then she coughed, hard, coughed a couple more times, sat up a little, looked around, and seemed… confused. "How did I get here?" She murmured, like she had no memory of the time between drowning, and, well, not drowning.

"Good question…" Jareth grumbled, shaking loose one tall, tight leather boot, currently much the worse for wear, and looking rather uncomfortable. "I mean, clearly the obvious answer is out… That would require me having a heart, after all." For whatever his reasons, and at least one seemed to be that he was currently highly annoyed with himself, he didn't quite look at her as he spoke.

This was not lost on Sarah… But the words clearly still weren't making sense. "You saved me?" She prompted at last, not sure she had this right. When he just gave her a short, impatient look before turning away, to focus on his other boot, she shook her head, suddenly… _Finally_, scared, as the full impact of what had just happened sunk in, and she looked desperately for someone to be angry with. "_Why_? What do you _want _from me?"

Jareth tilted his head to one side, then to the other, then to the first, in a dismissive bob, before turning again, and meeting her gaze full on this time. "I'm tired, I'm wet, and I'm cold, Sarah." He informed her, almost overly bluntly. "I'm in no mood for your games."

_Her_ games? She managed to choke down the words, and just ran her fingers through her sopping wet hair, staring at her knees, and trying not to think about what had almost happened. That was how she'd maintained her sanity this long, after all, or what there was of it… By never dwelling on what had _almost_ happened. She was getting very good at it.

After a moment she considered Jareth, currently examining his coat, which he'd stripped out of, and now seemed to be regarding with a half disgusted, half woeful eye. As if it was really just beyond saving now. He looked, bedraggled. That wasn't a word she'd ever been able to affix to him before. Sleek, elegant, poised… Sure. But now? His hair, proud and regal mane that it was, hung at the tips, deeply, like a soggy lion's, or a bunch of wet feathers. His mouth sagged at the corners slightly… His eyes, despite their un-water-marred effect of color… A little sunken, and with hints of dark beneath the glitter that looked a little like bruises.

It wasn't just his appearance… He moved a little differently, like lifting his arms was a bother, or tilting his head tired him. Or he was more annoyed with the world than usual. Certainly he seemed more annoyed with her. But that could just be because he'd chosen ruining his outfit over letting her be eaten.

But… She didn't like seeing him like this. For some reason that gnawed at her middle, she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault… Maybe because so many things were turning out to be her fault these days. "Are you all right?" She prompted at last, a little hesitantly.

"Oh, I'm _dandy_, Sarah." A humorless smile tugged his lips, and he gave that sort of bemused bob to his head again, looking, this time, vaguely in Ludo's and Hoggle's direction. "Don't I look like I'm just _dandy_? Clearly, having you in my labyrinth is having a _wonderful_ effect on me…"

For once, Sarah wasn't put off in the least by his snide challenge. "You look like you're about to fall over." She noted softly, wondering, briefly, how he could somehow be more affected by her being here, than she was, actually being in a world she didn't, presumably, belong in. "When was the last time you slept?"

Jareth made a small, noncommittal sound, before raising his eyes, briefly to her… As if, as much as anything, he just wanted to see his reaction to his answer, his lips already turned into a humorless smirk. "Since you reentered my Labyrinth, I suppose." He noted, as if this fact were some sort of concession… Or more closely, as if once again, he didn't expect her to understand the _lengths_ he went through for her.

Sarah shook her head, slowly, refusing to belief this… Even if the proof was right there, in the tired draw of the goblin king's normally flawless features, as he considered her wanly. "But that's been days!"

"Hmm." He returned his attention to his socks, which he now began drawing off as well. "Then surely even you can see why my patience may be wearing thin, Sarah. I know it's against your nature, but… Grant me a small reprieve, and leave off challenging my intentions for just a short while, would you?"

His intentions? Sarah shook her head, pressing her wet hair back with both hands, and briefly considered an area generally skyward, before closing her eyes in a sense of resignation… and possibly a similar lack of patience, after the day she'd just had as well. "You need to rest Jareth…" She decided, matter-of-factly, fully expecting him to disagree with her, just for the sake of arguing. "That's it, you- You're staying here until you get some sleep."

Now, finally, he had her attention. Amusement, tugging at his lip despite his exhaustion, as he lifted one eyebrow at her challengingly. "Am I?" He mused, not going so far as to deny it… More, curious where this was going.

"Yes!" Sarah snapped shortly, more on habit than any real annoyance with him… Only to pause, lower her gaze to consider him, and try again, more softly… Suddenly, just not angry anymore. Like some wall that had been standing between them as long as she could remember, had fallen. She didn't _care_ if he thought she was weak for this. "…please." She whispered, finding the next words true, even before she said them. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

It was, an unexpected lowering of arms. Even by the goblin king's plans. And for a moment, he just considered her, a thoughtful look touching his features. "So concerned, Sarah?" He murmured at last, very softly… Only to smile, that damn familiar smug smile, and lean back a little, throwing his arm over his knee as he regarded her, altogether with the sort of expression that said he had her over a barrel now… Having admitted she'd actually given a damn about him. "Very well, on, _one _condition."

Sarah didn't even rise to the bait… Just tilted her head a little, regarding him flatly, her lips slightly pursed… "What?" She sighed, oddly certain he wasn't about to ask for anything she wouldn't be willing to agree to… If only because it wasn't in his own best interest. "What could you possibly want from me now?"

He seemed, not quite taken aback, but bemused, or a bit disgruntled, that he hadn't gotten under her skin as easily as he'd expected. Then though, he just sort of shrugged, smiled, and made his 'demands.' "That you change out of those sopping wet clothes before you get sick." He smirked, slouching again, in that lazy, graceful way of some big blond cat. "Unless of course, it somehow hasn't occurred to you yet, that I don't want anything to happen to _you_, either. _Sarah_." And he sort of pursed his lips in a smile.

Maybe it was the way he said it. Maybe, it was the sheer ridiculousness of her situation, once again catching up to her… Or maybe she was finally starting to appreciate the goblin king's strange brand of humor. Either way, she laughed a little, surprising both herself, and possibly him. It was a brief fit of giggles that died quickly… But she did note, as he rested her forehead against her fingertips, and regarded him with a sort of detached bemusement, "You're determined to torment me, until I love you, aren't you?"

It was a peace offering, of sorts. Maybe even a thank you. Jareth just pursed his lips briefly again, made a little, almost dismissive sound of acknowledgement, tipping his head a little to one side, and admitted, "That is _part _of the plan, anyway…" Having said this, he cast a subtle glance in her direction, to see how she'd respond to this… But Sarah was just laughing softly again, shaking her head, and looking at nothing at all, lost in her own internal humor.

And suddenly not quite so tired anymore, Jareth looked away again, smiling.

(break)


	13. More Consequences

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

(break)

_Of all the stupid_… Sarah sighed, running her hands slowly down the front of the dress, and trying not to admire it. With a delicate, airy roughness that brought to mind raw silk, dipped in a deep gold dye, it flowed out from her touch like a breeze, shifting with every movement… Offering next to no protection from the elements, should such elements arise.

For example, rain. Rain would… melt this dress.

_Bring spare clothes. Great idea, Sarah. Put them in your backpack, so you can keep them close. Until you fall in a river, and have to be rescued by Mr.-Oh-She-Doesn't-Need-This-Silly-Thing…_

Pressing her lips into a thin line, she cast a glance over her shoulder, again, despite Hoggle's vow that he was keeping an eye out for any goblin king trickery… Or the fact that she was already dressed, and there wasn't anything to see that he wouldn't be seeing in half a breath regardless.

It was beautiful. It was actually the kind of dress she would have given half her toys, gowns, and other prized possessions for, once upon a time. And it annoyed her, vaguely, that he knew it, and offered her the bit of pretty like, oh, this? This is nothing at all…

Clearing her throat, with a trace of nervousness she couldn't account for, she stepped out from behind the low sheet that had been hung, in the name of her privacy, and met the goblin king's gaze straight on, her cheeks burning with… what? "Well?" She asked shortly, her lips quivering on the verge of a smile. "What do you think?"

Jareth lifted his head, now similarly dry- though for him, this included his hair- and more appropriately attired. He smiled, a small, almost patronizing little twist of his pale lips. "If I didn't think it suited you, Sarah, I wouldn't have offered it." And with this, he flicked his fingers, in a come hither sort of way, to the lanky, silver-haired… something or other, who was currently clutching Sarah's pack firmly to his serpentine chest. Apparently it had been retrieved… for all the good it did. "Do… take care of that, would you?"

The creature, obviously male, tilted his head, almost prettily, like some exotic reptilian bird… Then shrugged, and no more direction than this given, slithered off the way he'd come, sparing Sarah, as he went, a strange, conspiratorial wink, and second shrug, before he was gone.

Giving his retreating back a scathing look, Jareth watched him go, then smirked, lifted one eyebrow, and returned his gaze to Sarah, giving her a lazy, dangerous look… No more feigning, no more veiled signals, just a sort of purely appreciative, and warning, glance, that made her struggle not to blush. "Though I must say, Sarah… It is not the dress that exceeds my expectations."

Not sure how to respond to an openly flirting goblin king, but not willing to return to the distrust and animosity of before, Sarah pretended to miss the little compliment, and instead ran her fingers through her wet hair, stretching a little, before she stopped, and caught herself, and looked after Jareth's vanished servant. "So… what sort of creature is he?"

Jareth smirked, not the least put off his game, and leaned back a little, resting, in that way he had, on nothing at all. "He's a goblin, Sarah." The king answered matter-of-factly, like that much should be obvious. "What did you think he was?

"Um…" Sarah shook her head, not ready with an answer, but not quite satisfied by his, even if this had been intended merely as a diversion. "He doesn't look like a goblin…"

Jareth looked amused, considering her, then the sky, waving one arm outward helplessly. "They're all goblins, Sarah." He chuckled, dropping it to his knee again. "There isn't a thing in this labyrinth that isn't… Even little Hog-spit there."

Hoggle startled, having briefly been not paying attention… Then scowled. "I'm a dwarf!" He denied indignantly, turning back to Sarah to agree. "Tell him, Sarah!"

"Of course you are, Hogwash…" Jareth dismissed, not even waiting for Sarah to verify this. "And the canine duo you'll look for next… Goblins as well." A small pause here though, and then, with a grimace, and a careless gesture, he went on, clarifying this, with, "Hobgoblins, boggarts, things that go bump in the night." A pointed glance in Sarah's direction. "Not of _your _world."

Sarah frowned, processing this. "But, Hoggle's a dwarf, and…"

"What can I say…?" The goblin king interrupted, etiquette be damned. "Humans always seem to feel the need to define us, and well, sometimes the names just stick." An amused moue, almost fond. "You mortals do that with a surprising number of things you don't understand…"

After this, neither of them said anything for a moment… Sarah, as much as anything, because she wasn't certain he was finished. …And then, because she wanted to word this just right. "So… what are you?" She asked softly, feigning no attempt at innocence.

"Me?" Both of Jareth's eyebrows flew up in a mild surprise… Feigned or not himself, she couldn't tell. "Why, I'm the goblin king, of course."

Sarah shook her head, not giving up so easily. "I mean, besides that." She clarified easily.

"Hmm." He regarded her for the length of a breath, more… Then got that familiar, smug look of superiority to his features, like this was such an interesting little game. "Interestingly enough, no one has ever seemed to feel the need to define me beyond that title, Sarah." A flourish with one arm, and a bit of bravado, adding, "I am what I am!"

Sarah considered his answer with no indication of being impressed… If marginally amused. "Okay…" She agreed, after a moment to let his showmanship rest, "But you're still a goblin…?"

He glanced at her flatly. "And you're pressing my patience." He informed her, without much enthusiasm… Followed by a brief, pressed smile.

But this had actually only been part one of Sarah's question… And now she felt a little more ready to ask part two. The answer of which, might have a telling impression on any further friendship with the goblin king. "And… What would Toby have been?" She asked softly, tilted her head, just so, to the side, to consider him.

Any trace of humor slowly left Jareth's features, as he considered this, _clearly _loaded, question. "Your little brother?" He echoed, softly, watching her. For a minute, it seemed he wouldn't answer… Or, put on the spot, couldn't think of one that wouldn't jeopardize their burgeoning friendship. After a moment though, he just looked away, his lips pressed into a thin line. "…The next goblin king, actually."

It was, perhaps, the one answer she wasn't expecting. There could be only one goblin king, surely… That it might be her brother? And if her brother had been supposed to… "Then, what would have happened to you?" She asked quietly, suddenly suspecting that this was, perhaps, the one issue she shouldn't press with him… And of course, stubbornly determined to do just this.

Jareth offered an empty little smile, punctuated by a short, chilling laugh, and shook his head. "I honestly don't know…" He admitted, as if this were, at least part, of a greater joke that had been played on him. "But after six hundred years of being surrounded by imbeciles, and gnarled little cretins… I must tell you, Sarah… I was more than ready to find out!"

It wasn't that he seemed a little less stable than usual, a little less, in control, than the goblin king she knew, that told her she'd struck a nerve… It actually wasn't his reaction at all, but the way that his three present servants, Ludo, Hoggle- even Blue- made a point of moving just a little further from him, without his sending so much as a glance in their direction. "So, now that Toby's not going to be the next goblin king…?" She whispered.

"Sarah…" Hoggle moaned, shaking his head in a useless attempt to warn her off this line of thought.

"Hmm?" Jareth gave her a mad, charming little smile, settled his weight a little differently, and suddenly paid _all _his attention to her. "You mean now that _you've _interfered… breaking the line of succession, shattering all known laws of binding that this little make-believe pocket world of mine knows?" A twitch, a tilt of his head, and a thoughtful press to his lips. "I suppose I get to wait a few more centuries, playing lord and master of these miserable little monsters, until the next child is born, who can assume the title." A glance up, not quite angrily, but certainly not, quite pleased. "And incidentally, Sarah… thank you so _much _for that little favor."

At first she just stared at him, trying to wrap her mind around this… Then shook her head, and considered him with a frown… Not as an antagonist, but for the moment at least, on equal terms. "You can't blame me for that." She denied, matter-of-factly. "It wasn't my fault."

Now, he finally looked annoyed. "Oh, really Sarah…"

"No, I'm serious…" She dropped down to the uneven stone, gathering the dress as she went, to meet his gaze on level, and for once, didn't look away when he gazed, irritably, past the fore of her eyes, and seemed to be staring straight through her. "You've convinced me you're not the villain. I understand. You were doing what you had to. Following your destiny, following your law…" She shook her head, annoyed with herself for not getting the words out as eloquently as they sounded in her head. "So you're not the bad guy. I get it. I do."

"But guess what? I'm not the bad guy either." And having thought this through many times, she wasn't just trying to argue her way out of feeling guilty anymore… Wasn't even just trying to even the playing field, so the goblin king wouldn't have anything to hang over her head anymore. "He's my baby brother. It's my job to protect him, to keep him with his family… Even if that means protecting him from some destiny that was written in some ancient book whose powers I don't really understand." She met his gaze evenly, not judgingly, not with fear, and smiled, well aware now, that this just couldn't have worked out for the best for all involved, no matter what. "You took him from his family. I brought him back."

Jareth considered her, a thoughtful little moue twisting his lips. "So that makes you the hero again, does it, Sarah?" He asked softly.

Sarah, still smiling, shook her head, and looked down at her fingers, smoothing the fabric of her skirt. "No." She denied softly, shaking her head slowly. "It doesn't. I wished him away. I got him back. You tried to fulfill his destiny. I interfered. We were both acting in his best interest. I won." A shrug. "That doesn't make me the hero. It doesn't even mean it turned out the way it should have. I don't know." She looked up at him again, sighing. "We just, played our parts. It was never even supposed to be about us."

After a moment, the goblin king nodded, sort of a grudging acknowledgement… If vaguely impressed by her reasoning. "I suppose so." He agreed, rather as if the idea that anything in the world not revolving around him was somewhat, distasteful. "But it is now, Sarah… Isn't it?"

"I guess so." A shrug. "So here we are."

"So here we are…" He echoed softly. "And with all your philosophizing, Sarah… Have you given any thought as to just what that means?"

"It means you're still king, for one." She noted, after a moment of thought. She suspected she knew why he grimaced at this, but she wasn't sure. "It's not like I can change that now, Jareth."

"No." He agreed, flatly, "I suppose it's not. Never mind the hordes of fools who believe that, as my designated time is at an end, and there is no longer an heir to take my place, there is no longer _any_ legitimate king of the underground… My presence, and my stubbornness, notwithstanding." Sarah didn't know what to say to this, so as expected, Jareth took his opportunity, and pressed on. "Though it's not of any real concern to you, is it, Sarah? You'll find your dreams, and you'll go happily back to that miserable little nothing world you live in, and you won't give me a second thought."

"That's not true…" Sarah protested-

Only to be cut off by Jareth, firmly, saying, "Yes it is. Whether you want it to be or not. There are parts of this world that are beyond your power, Sarah…" And his voice dropped marginally, as he added, pointedly, "Or mine."

"I don't believe it." Sarah denied quietly.

And again, again, as if he knew some great game they were playing that she wasn't privy to, Jareth tilted his head, smiled at her, and then, as if it didn't really matter anyway, finally leaned back on the stone, laying his length across it, as if to seek some solace of rest in its uneven surface.

"I'm never going to be able to trust you, if you keep giving me that whole cat that knows where the canary went look." She muttered, deliberately moving no closer herself, but lying down as well, some two yards distance, more, and certain, with a heat burning through her, that it wasn't enough.

"You say that like I want you to." He chuckled, turning his back to her… "What fun would that be?" A smooth, strong back, clad in a sort of piratey sort of…

Sarah turned her back as well, stubbornly. Jareth and his games… She couldn't help but grin. _Damn him_…

-(break)-

His mind was a place of dark magics and golden phantoms, constantly turning, even in sleep, over consequences, possible betrayals… failures. Not a term he'd ever had to know quite so intimately, before Sarah.

Three times he woke up, very still, showing no sign of his return to consciousness, save for the opening of brooding, mismatched eyes, gazing skyward, before closing again, in a stubborn insistence to rest, rest now, while Sarah was close, and he could…

…protect her… annoy her… something.

The third time, he wasn't woken by twisting thoughts, or random nightmares, or the myriad of disturbing images that could interrupt a goblin king's dreams, but by the arrival of a slender, pale skinned sprite, some three feet from tip to tip, shaded by hues of soft blue, and swathed all in gray.

Without a word, the sprite, male, though not obviously so, didn't even wait for him to fully regain consciousness, but began peeling away the glittery gold and black vest he was wearing, bent over his chest just so, as its wide black eyes took in the reason it had been summoned in the first place.

Jareth, annoyed, struck out randomly with the back of his hand, not really intending to hit the creature, so much as show his displeasure. It worked, at least a little, the sprite took an awkward step back, looked at him, blinked dubiously, and reached into the folds of its robes, pulling out an exaggerated pair of spectacles, more like a jeweler's tools than a healer's.

"Now, shall we see…?" The doctor mused, folding his hands, and fluttering the tips of his fingers just so with excitement… It wasn't every day one got to treat the king of the goblins, after all. "Clearly your wound needs tending to, majesty. Mustn't let such a thing fester, oh no…"

Belatedly, Jareth looked down at his half exposed chest, and the wide, pink gash that stretched across more than half of it… No longer bleeding, but almost shamefully marring his otherwise flawless skin. "Be quick about it." He muttered shortly, not much rested by his so called rest, and not pleased to be reminded of his own recent failings, either.

It should have been so simple… The creatures, those golems, should have turned to his will without a second thought. Instead, they turned _on_ him. A glancing blow- they were stupid, feeble creatures, hardly capable of more… But they had disobeyed him. And they would only be the first.

He touched the edge of the wound, crossly, mindless of the pain, and turned a stubborn frown to his Sarah's companions. Ludo was fast asleep- snoring like the great useless heap of fur he was- But the dwarf had woken. And he was watching. "Not a word of this to the girl," Jareth warned softly, his eyes narrowed as he considered the smaller man, "Am I understood?"

"Oh! Y-yes, your majesty!" Hoggle agreed quickly, nodding away as he folded his hands, and pretended to look anywhere else. "Yes, yes… didn't see a thing, I didn't!"

Muttering a soft curse under his breath involving his servant's mother, grandmother, and entire nonexistent family line, Jareth turned back to watch the sprite work, keeping him under one very careful eye. It was annoying, not knowing who he could and couldn't trust… Probably be easier not to trust any of them at all, and simply crush anyone who crossed him. Like that lifeless pile of bloody stone, being picked to bits in the bottom of the river…

The doctor said nothing else, beyond his original greeting, and when he was done, he packed up his few meager tools, and left, as well, without a word. Jareth shook his head, and plucked a slight, briefly existing orb from the air, only giving it substance long enough to banish his current outfit, which might have earned some small sign of his injury, and don something endlessly black, with trace adornments of white.

And only then did he turn, and consider Sarah… Who had remained, surprisingly, unmoved, throughout the entire ordeal. Snorting indelicately, to show what he thought of that… Jareth tipped his face up, briefly, and rubbed the place along the bridge of his nose- Before shrugging, smirking, and scooting over, rather carelessly, to place himself by the mortal girl's side, watching, head tilted just so, as she slept obliviously by his hip.

"Sarah, you silly girl…" He murmured, tracing the tips of his black laced gloves across the crown of her tangled brown hair. "Whatever shall I do with you…?"

He paused, abruptly, as she stirred under his touch, and rolled, her soft face turned up, before her tired eyes opened, and she gave him a look that suggested he was being particularly irksome at the moment. "Well, you could let me sleep…" She grumbled, batting his hand away, and pushing herself grudging to a sitting position. "I can't possibly be the only one who's still tired… We couldn't have slept more than three hours!"

Briefly considering the circular logic involved in any discussion of the passage of time in his world, Jareth dismissed it as not nearly interesting enough way to greet her on waking, and instead gave her his most devil may care grin, and shook his finger at her admonishingly. "The Underground waits for no one, Sarah." He reminded her, clucking his tongue. "And neither do mortal dreams. Can you really afford to lollygag around here, while-"

"Yes." Sarah informed him matter-of-factly, moving, pointedly, away from him, and over to where her two friends lay… Grabbing Ludo's arm, throwing it with some small effort around her, and burying her face in the long stringy red fur of the other. "And if my dreams are anything like me, they'll be sleeping too." She added, the words muffled now. "I'll find them in the morning, Jareth, okay?"

She didn't much wait for him to answer, clearly not caring if he did, and a moment later, was swallowed up completely by Ludo's reddish orange bulk, as he shifted his weight, and cast her from Jareth's sight completely.

Jareth frowned, marginally. For all the large teddy bear qualities she most assuredly associated with the hairy lump, he was, in fact, another man… of sorts. "How simple it is for you to share you affections with him, I see." He noted, annoyed- regardless of whether or not she thought of the yeti that way at all.

Hoggle though, no fool, had scooted away from the two of them, well within the goblin king's view… Letting his Sarah rest undisturbed, surely, but looking, a bit nonplussed about the situation himself. If not quite to the same extent that the goblin king was.

After a moment though, it no longer seemed to concern the little man, and he yawned, scratched, and considered the night sky, with the eye of one who knew damn well it held no real promise of the passage of time. This whole time, pointedly not looking at any of them, his fingers seeking the reassuring smoothness of his pretty jewels…

Jareth was just thinking about going back to sleep himself, when Hoggle gave a little jump, looked surprised, and held up the bit of rag that the goblin king had given him some time before, suddenly looking alarmed. "Oh, um…" He got quickly to his feet, and shuffled over to Jareth, who regarded him in some small amusement, well aware where this was going. "Um, your majesty… ah… yer, map, sir."

The goblin king regarded the worn bit of fabric, a bit as if he were loathe even to touch it, and pursed his lips, tilting his head in a mock thoughtful manner. "That old thing?" He mused, clearly disdainful. "Why in heaven's name would I want that little scrap of nothing back?"

Confused, Hoggle's mouth opened and closed a couple of times, before he shook his head, still holding out the bit of stained rag. "But- but you said… your majesty…"

"I'm aware of what I said…" Jareth assured him, entirely without apology… And in fact with some small measure of amused satisfaction. "But really, Hogshead… did you actually think I'd entrust some priceless royal heirloom to a miserable little snot like yourself?" He smiled, leaned back a little, and considered his servant, or former servant, or whatever the little creature was now, clearly not expecting it to end that quickly.

"Uh, I 'spose not…" Hoggle mumbled, slowly turning red. "It's just… what you said, er… majesty… Thought maybe it was important, is all."

The goblin king just sort of smirked, tilting his head in that way he had, and was about to explain his very good reason for deceiving the dwarf, who otherwise would have sat wallowing in the trees doing nothing while the girl got herself killed looking for him…

And was interrupted before he could, by said girl, clearly not as asleep as she'd pretended to be, sitting up, and giving him just a bloodcurdling little glare to show what she thought of his behavior. "Jareth!" She hissed, clearly much put out by the way he was treating her friend.

"Jareth, _what_?" The goblin king snapped right back, irritated himself at, once again, being painted the villain, when as usual, he was doing this all for her. "_He _was sitting around, a moping useless _nothing_, before _I _set a fire under him!" He broke off that line of thought though, very quickly, adding, a bit bitterly, "Or do you suppose I should have given him the real map?" He made a gesture of disdain, even before the suggestion was fully made. "I would have had to cut his ugly little head off if he'd so much as glanced at that…" And pointedly, once again, "I was doing you a favor!"

"Always with the favors…" Sarah just looked at him with this sort of, frustrated disappointment, that needled at his skin, and made him scowl, and look away. "Can't you, I don't know, just be nice to him?"

"Nice to him?" Jareth echoed hollowly, before turning a scornful look back to her. "Or nice, specifically, to all your traitorous little _pets_? As opposed, perhaps, to those servants of mine who do actually still choose to _obey _me?"

Her fingers flared across her knees, and she sat there, struggling with a proper answer to this, leaving him a moment to let his irritation fade, and a sense of amused tolerance to return to him… Not that he was about to let it on, just giving her a bitter little smile as she gave up, and flopped back against Ludo's side, crossing her arms defiantly. "You're impossible." She muttered, visibly resigned to the fact that she wasn't going to win this argument.

"Hm." Jareth dismissed this, with an unimpressed head shake, and countered, easily, with, "And you're _snuggling _with a sasquatch. What _is _your point?"

She blushed. It happened so rarely… Had it ever happened…? That it caught him by surprise, and he laughed at how cute it made her cheeks and lips color in that vulnerable way of such emotions. This just made her get irritated, and look away, of course… But she didn't come back with some sharp tongued retort, or glare at him furiously, or any of her usual annoyed responses, so he considered it a victory.

"If you're going to get some sleep, Sarah, you should probably do so." He offered after a moment, semi-gallantly, before adding, "Though I assure you, I'd make a far more pleasant sleeping companion than that uneven lump of coarse, smelly hair…" With just a trace of a smile in the invitation.

"Ludo may… smell, a little… But _he _is a gentleman." Sarah noted, scooting back to rest her back against said Ludo's long hairy arm, and giving Jareth a defiant- sort of tolerant- little frown.

Jareth shrugged. "If that's the case, then clearly he's an even greater idiot than I would have credited him for." He gave an unimpressed little wave, and leaned back a little, on a rising of stones that hadn't been there a moment before, offering some, albeit it not much, comfort on the uneven trail. "Go to sleep, Sarah. Enjoy your oversized plush toy. And just remember, if he gives you any trouble, I'll be more than happy to have him stuffed and mounted for you… Just like the real thing."

Sarah's creative, unimpressed cursing just cheered him pleasantly, making his uncomfortable bed just that much more bearable… And as he regarded the sky, sleepily, he reflected that maybe someday, if she asked him nicely, he'd put a few choice stars up there, just to impress her. If that didn't make her little mortal head spin after all, nothing would.

At least they were finally making progress. Or she seemed to be. He still couldn't decide if he wanted to make the girl love him completely and forever, or just…

Or just… not go away.


	14. Different Definitions

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

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I honestly don't know any more if this chap is any good or not. I've rewritten it from scratch in completely different ways either four or five times now, I'm not sure which, and I like this version best, but... Eh. I don't know. You be the judge. So yeah, I figure three chapters after this should tie it up nicely. I've even got an idea started for the next chapter, so...

I'm not going to guarantee this fic will be my best, all in all, but I will finish it. And I should be able to do so a little more quickly, now that I have a better idea of how these next few chapters are shaping up. This one's a little Jareth heavy, but her friends will show up a little more in later ones. For now they're keeping their distance, figuratively, from the whole affair...

I am so, so sorry this has taken so long...

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The goblin king watched his mortal obsession as she lay there, curled so small against the uneven stone, her dress spilling like molten gold in a halo around her. Her dark hair catching delicately on her lips, and eyelashes. His own mouth pursed, as one hand sought the hidden wound on his chest, his head tilted just so as the wind played recklessly about its master at rest.

"But what no one knew," Jareth murmured, to himself, since no one but the faery was awake to listen, "Was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl…" The knuckles of his hand sought the curve of his chin, and he frowned, a little distractedly. "What utter nonsense. Won't it be embarrassing for everyone when it turns out to be true?"

Shrugging, he got to his feet smoothly, with a languid stretch, and regarded the sky… Still, sedentary, unchanging. _Boring_, he mused, in his current listless state. Lifting his hands, he narrowed his eyes at it, and formed a rough circle between his out stretched fingers, making a vague, lifting motion from the horizon. A ball of flame erupted overhead, oranges and yellows, briefly licking at the heavens until it settled in its place.

With smears of his thumbs, as if he were blending finger-paints, streaks of soft slate and pale lavender crossed the heavens, colliding with the harsher colors in a bending twist of light… Before also settling down, into streams of pale grey that caught and bent with the wind as clouds.

Jareth regarded his handiwork, arms crossed, before tiring with this as well, and crossing to his sleeping companions, and with a solid blow from the toe of his boot, rousing first the dwarf, then the yeti.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Hoggle groaned, rolling to one side, and blearily pushing himself up on his hands. His eyes fastened tiredly on the sky, and seeing nothing familiar there, a confused frown crossed his face. "Where am I?"

"You're in _my _labyrinth." Jareth assured him a bit shortly. "As you've been from the day I brought you to this miserable little world, as you'll probably be long after I've left it. Now get to your feet, or I'll kick you again." When the smaller man didn't move quickly enough, Jareth moved to do just this, making his former servant hurriedly scurry away, climbing clumsily to his feet.

Hoggle gave him a dirty look. "You never change, do you, Jareth?" He demanded, only to frown as his words had the unexpected result of making the dangerous man smile.

"You know, everyone keeps telling me that." He mused, strolling, almost casually, over to where Ludo and Sarah still slept, his own efforts unnoticed. "You'd think they expected me to be surprised, or something."

Before this thought could be followed any further, his hand darted out, without apparent warning, and he plucked Blue from where she'd been flying far too closely to go unnoticed. "You." He muttered, without any more interest than this. "Wake Sarah up. And if you manage to bite the hairy red beast she's been draping herself over all night while you're doing it, there's a nice bit of _shiny _in it for you, understood?" He let her go.

Hoggle regarded the man with a serious wrinkling of his brow… Jareth didn't change. That was the one thing he could be sure of. But Jareth where Sarah was concerned? He wasn't sure where that went yet. Not as sure as the girl seemed, anyway… Who'd ever honestly believe the king of the labyrinth could care about somebody?

Shaking his head, Hoggle found himself something else to busy himself with, in this case tightening the buckles on his boots, and didn't even bother looking up when Ludo gave a sleepy bellow of pain, and sat up shortly, looking to and fro in confusion as long, wild strands of red fur stuck out in every conceivable direction. The smaller man didn't bother bringing Sarah's attention to the little deal that Jareth had made with her faery… He didn't see the point. And didn't care enough to care.

He did look back at Sarah's effort to calm the red giant, stroking his arm gently, and looking around to try and figure out what was wrong… Finally just hugging him, like an oversized child, his monstrous head at her shoulder. "There, there… whatever it was, now it's gone. You probably just had a nightmare."

Ludo did his best to bury his face in her shoulder for a moment, before lifting his head, giving her a doleful look, and holding his arm out for inspection. "Ow." He complained unhappy, milking the tiny hurt for far more than it was worth, for the girl's sake.

"Oh, quit yer blubbering," Hoggle grunted, making his way over to the pair, and swatting Ludo's arm back down, "We got things to do!" Gesturing, vaguely, in Sarah's direction. "The little lady's dreams ain't gonna find themselves, you know!"

"I wouldn't bet on _that_…" Jareth muttered, already regarding his handiwork in the sky again, and pretending not to notice as Sarah brushed her dress off, stood, and came up beside him.

"What do you mean, you wouldn't bet on it?" She puzzled slowly, clearly well aware that whether or not he was trying to play nicely now, this was still a game between them. "It's either one or the other… and how exactly would they find themselves?"

"Never mind that, Sarah," He dismissed impatiently, lifting one hand to gesture at his work painting the sky. "What do you think of _that_?" A thoughtful tilt of his head. "Much better than it was before, don't you think?"

Sarah stared at him for a moment longer, before following his line of sight, and taking in the changed sky. For a moment, despite herself, she was clearly impressed. "You did that?" She murmured softly, lifting her hand to shield her eyes a little from the now encompassing light… Something Jareth didn't even bother with, for his own comfort. She shook her head, not giving him a chance to answer. "_How_ did you do that?" She went on, looking at him again dubiously. Like maybe he was lying.

"I can do a lot of things, Sarah." Jareth denied, a bit smugly, before offering her a small, amused twist of his lips. "You might even be impressed, if you gave yourself a chance."

Her expression shifted, somewhere between amused and irritated. "Impressed…" She echoed, gathering up her skirts in both hands, and shaking her head musingly as she started forward again, resuming her quest without so much ceremony. "Well, if you wanted to impress me, you didn't have to go rearranging the sky." She informed him over her shoulder, matter-of-factly. "You could try just being _nice_, for a change."

Jareth's lip curled a little in distaste, even as he managed a small, strained smile. "Nice?" The word sounded, annoyed, coming from him, even as he started after her, clearly not ready to let it go that easily. "What fun is _that_?"

Sarah sighed. Somehow, she had the feeling that this was about a typical answer from the goblin king… and that when he _wasn't _trying to irk her. "It's not always about having fun." She pointed out, more or less tolerantly, as she cast a glance back, to make sure she hadn't left anyone behind.

"Really." Jareth stopped in his tracks, briefly, before coming on again, easily catching up to her. "Well, then how do _you _keep from getting bored?"

"Um…" Sarah frowned, pursing her lips a little. "I make friends." She answered, after a moment of thought. Then, almost pointedly, "You should try it, sometime."

Again that, sort of curl, as Jareth didn't quite look at her, but took no pains to disguise his lingering gaze over the group behind them, currently not sure just how close they wanted to walk to the goblin king. "I'd rather not…" He muttered under his breath, running his hand absently across the back of his neck. "The current selection isn't particularly encouraging."

Not sure if she was fed up with his attitude already, or if she honestly did see an opportunity in the words to lessen the rift between them, Sarah stopped, catching his hand as he would have gone on, making him pause too… and look at her, then their joined hands, then her again, with a frown. "What?" He demanded, a little shortly.

"What if… I was your friend?" Sarah pressed simply.

The goblin king's eyebrows flew up, just marginally. "You?" He repeated, in clear disbelief. "My _friend_?" He gazed down at her dubiously, clearly not quite ready to trust this. "Do you know what you're saying, Sarah?"

She started to say that yes, she did. But the fact was, she didn't. In fact it was probably a bad idea… No. Almost certainly a bad idea. She had no clue where something like that would lead… And that said, she still didn't take it back. But honestly, did she know what she was saying? "Not very often, I'm starting to think." She admitted, looking at him with weary amusement, adding with a sigh, "Not anymore."

"Hm." He didn't seem to have a good answer for this. "Fair enough…" He said at last, drawing himself up a bit, and trying to look dignified… Usually an easy thing for him, currently less so, from the way he stared at their hands together. "All right, Sarah. I'll be your… _friend_." His eyes flicked up to hers, before he drew away from her touch, pointedly. "I just hope you know what you're getting into."

Sarah looked unimpressed. "I told you I didn't." She reminded him simply, starting forward again, without giving her new 'friend' so much as a second glance.

"Hm." He gave a little shrug, as if this were really the least of his concerns. "I suppose I should be used to that by now… It _is _part of what makes you so interesting."

"I'm interesting…" Sarah echoed hollowly, not saying how she felt about that either way.

"Well, if you weren't, I certainly wouldn't be wasting my time on you, would I?" He muttered under his breath, physically brushing aside a branch that reached across from the cliff face, swatting at him, rather than magicking it away. "And I assure you Sarah, one thing you never are, is boring."

She didn't look at him, didn't say a word, other than, "Hm." Pointedly avoiding letting him see her small smile, lest he think she actually appreciated his compliment. After a moment though, almost as a peace offering, she noted- a bit aloofly, like it really didn't matter to her either way- "Well, I suppose you're hardly dull yourself, goblin king."

"Jareth." He corrected easily, as if this were some long run tease between them… The way it had been for him for so long, forgetting the dwarf's name. He didn't say more than this though.

In fact it was a long time before either of them said anything more… Sarah because she suspected she should put off opening that can of worms as long as possible, Jareth, because he honestly enjoyed the tension hanging between them. But this really just left things more than a little uncomfortable, if not for those two, than at least for their traveling companions.

Hoggle, for example. _He _certainly didn't want the goblin king there, and if neither of them were going to ask why he hadn't left yet… Well, it was all he could do _not_ to demand it, and end up with both feet shoved down his throat! He watched them dubiously, scratching his head, wondering, briefly, what the girl thought had changed between them. Shaking his head, in the end he couldn't do a damn thing. He just followed along dutifully, and try to watch out for the girl, seeing as how she didn't seem near ready to watch out for herself…

_Not that that's nothing new…_

"Sarah," He interjected though, with a twinge of concern as he saw how closely she was still walking to the river, despite her harrowing escape from it such a short time before, "Don't you think Jareth ought to be walking next to the river? Make sure you don't fall in again?"

Jareth glanced back with a slightly arched brow, smiling vaguely. "Why Higgle? Hoping I'll let my guard down, and you can push me in?" Adding, almost in contempt as he faced forward again. "You'll have to be a lot more creative than that, I'm afraid, if you're looking to get rid of me…"

"N-no!" Hoggle denied, starting off quickly, then sort of, trailing into thought, eyes guarded as, briefly, he seemed to consider the idea. "Um, of course not."

"No, of course not…" Jareth agreed, sort of absently. "You don't have that sort of-"

What he didn't have 'that sort of' was never actually revealed, as they reached the top of the most recent crest in the path, and a sharp cry of annoyance from Sarah interrupted them both, as she finally saw what lay beyond. Jareth turned, considering her with a frown. "What is it _now_, Sarah?"

Sarah ran her fingers uselessly through her hair in a gesture of frustration, giving the goblin king a look of exasperation. "Jareth!" She gestured with one hand towards the sudden end of their little road some bit distant, but now visible, at the base of a steeply sloping stone face. "You've got to be kidding me!"

The goblin king pressed his lips into an impatient line. "As if I really had some way of knowing you'd be taking this particular path, back when I was rebuilding the labyrinth." A short shake of his head, in thin humor. "Really, Sarah, you give me far too much credit."

Glaring at him a moment longer as she tried to find some way that this was still his fault, she finally looked away, shaking her head, and stared at the imposing obstacle again, moving to the near cliff face, leaning back against it. For a moment, she didn't say anything… Then she looked first at Hoggle, then back to the goblin king. "Well now what do we do?" She asked softly, sighing. Sort of giving up, at least for now, being the one who had to come up with all the answers.

"Well," Jareth mused slowly, taking a step towards her, with an unconvincing sense of detachment from any real opinion either way, "You could ask me for help." A brief, thinly humored smile. "Us being, _friends_, and all."

Sarah looks up at him, managing a small, dubious smile. "Really?" She mused softly. "You're going to start helping me now?"

"Start helping her, she says…" The goblin king muttered under his breath, briefly looking anywhere else, as if for some sort of third party to reinforce his next words. "She says that as if I haven't been helping her from the beginning…"

"I think you have a different definition of the word-" Sarah started, then stopped, abruptly, and put two fingers to her forehead, briefly, before looking up again. "I don't know. Maybe you have." She conceded, in a deliberate show of lowering her defenses. "This really isn't the time to argue about it." She looked forward to the, for lack of a better word, mountain, currently in their way, and tipped her head down a little, thinking. "I don't know how much time I have left," She added softly, "Before it's too late." She turned her gaze back to Jareth. "Are you going to help, or not?"

Jareth's expression turned thoughtful, and perhaps just a bit taunting… Though he gave the impression that this was less a conscious decision, then simply a mannerism he was too used to, to notice anymore. "I don't recall your asking." He noted, a bit of a smirk tracing his lips as he considered his long-time… What was she to him now, anyway? Annoyance, opponent… who knew?

Taking a deep breath, rather than letting go with the first retort ready on her tongue, Sarah straightened up slowly, met his gaze without flinching, and nodded, grimly. "All right." She agreed, tilting her chin up, just an inch. "I'm asking." A moment's pause, as her eyes flicked back down the path. "What do we do?"

The goblin king smiled. "In that case," He murmured, making a brief gesture with one arm, to beckon her on again as he started forward once more, giving no further indication of his 'plan,' "I suppose we _climb_."

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The stone face, as they finally reached it, wasn't straight up- but rather sloping, almost bowl-shaped, with loose stones to mark every inch of its impossibly steep, concave face. There was no visible way, in fact, to gain purchase on its surface at all… And while Sarah was fairly certain that Jareth would have no problem with it, this being a world that bent to his whim after all, she didn't see any visible way the rest of them could manage it.

"We're going to climb that?" She mused dubiously, shoving her toe against the crumbling surface with a frown, and not altogether surface when the rubber of her sole skidded against it when she tried to gain any purchase. She turned her face up, brushing her bangs from her eyes. "How?" She asked flatly.

"Where there's a will, there's often a way, Sarah…" Jareth replied enigmatically, step forward to regard the slanting stone with something of a calculating expression. "Let me see here…" He reached out experimentally, thinly clad hands carefully exploring the uneven rock. "It should be right about-" His hand found a place in the dusty gray surface that made him pause, and he smiled. "Yes, I thought so." His fingers closed around the protrusion, and with a swift twist to the right, he stepped back, crossed his arms, and watched, as the cliff face began tumbling, lifting, and completely reshaping itself.

Sarah watched, curiously, impressed, despite herself, as what took shape unmistakably as a staircase began carving itself into the once treacherous stone. Admittedly, they took shape as precarious looking, gravel encrusted steps, that she wasn't particularly keen to climb for the two hundred or so feet that it would take to reach the top, but it was a way up, nonetheless.

She turned her gaze to Jareth about to say something that, if she wasn't careful, might sound complimentary… Only to be interrupted by said goblin king, as he took a pointed step back, smiled, and gestured towards the path up the dangerous slope. "After you." He murmured politely, eyes glinting in interest as he waited for her reaction in good humor.

The mortal girl pressed her lips together briefly, and shook her head, deciding in an instant that now matter what had changed between them, clearly some things never would. And that went for her, as well as him. He wanted her to go first? Fine, she'd go first. "Such a gentleman." She muttered venomously, hiking up her skirts a little, eyeing the first step warily… And starting forward with a sigh. Well, if all else failed, maybe Ludo could catch her…

Almost as if this thought were some sort of prediction though, she'd only managed a few of the large steps when her foot turned under her, and her arms flew out in panic for purchase…

Only to close on the goblin king's arm. He was right behind her, and apparently ready for this little stumble. Sarah found herself, briefly supported against his chest, and looking up at him in surprise… Before blushing furiously, pulling her away from her, and pointedly looking anywhere else. She debated the idea, briefly, that this had been the reason he'd wanted to walk behind her… So _he_ could catch her if she fell… And for reasons she didn't really want to dwell on, it made her uneasy.

"Why on earth did I want to come back here so much?" She demanded in a soft curse, not actually bringing herself to thank him for… well, if not saving her life this time, at least a few badly skinned limbs. She pulled on her lips with her fingertips, and wished she had somewhere to storm, as she added, turning on him as if this in particular were his fault. "You know, ever since I got back, I've been scraped, bruised, bullied, bitten, rained on, half starved, and nearly drowned! And what's more…"

"You'd do it all again in a heartbeat." Jareth finished simply, smiling, when this clearly was not what she'd been going to say.

She stared a moment, her mouth still open… Then shook her head, and looked away. "No!" She denied, coldly, angrily… Then frowned, as she asked the question again, silently. If she had any sense… This place was dangerous! And… and beautiful, and… "…maybe." She acknowledged after a moment, softly, not committing to any more than that. But there had to be a reason she'd written about it so devotedly for these past four years…!

Jareth turned his head, slightly, letting his golden mane falling dangerous close as he leaned in, bracing his weight fearlessly against the uncertain cliff face. "Admit it, Sarah," He pressed, smiling, with the sense that any confession she made now was strictly between them, "You love this world… All my little, tricks, and trappings…"

She found it very hard to think when he was that close to her face… As much as anything, because she found it very hard to look away… And that alone annoyed her beyond belief. "Why do you have to make it all so difficult…?" She whispered, referring, for the moment, not just to the labyrinth itself anymore at all… And from his answering smile, he knew it.

"The same reason you prefer it that way, precious," Drawing back slowly, every inch of his retreat visibly temporary, "Because anything else would be _mind-numbingly _dull." His gaze flicked past her, then back, pointedly. "Are we done then? Shall we go on?"

Sarah turned, started to say something, then shook her head, well are that she didn't really know what to say. Was it true? After all that had happened here, after all that had happened between them… Well, she had asked him to be her friend, hadn't she? And even if she tried to make it seemed like some big gesture on her part… He had said yes. And she knew what she'd be getting into, coming here, and the whole reason she'd come at all…

The whole reason she'd come at all, was so she wouldn't _forget._ And that didn't just mean the good parts, or the friends she'd made… She didn't want to forget any of it. _Would Alice want to forget Wonderland_, she mused to herself, sort of absently, as she no longer paid nearly the attention she should to the steep staircase. _Would Wendy want to forget Never-land? Would Dorothy want to forget…_

_Oh_. She hesitated, remembering, rather unexpectedly, her last conversation with Adam. '_And Dorothy found her way back to Oz, too. Over and over again, even… Until she stayed!'_

She was actually brooding so deeply in the questions that Jareth's careless goad had made, that she didn't realize she'd made it all the way up the cliff, until she ran out of stairs to climb. Somewhat surprised by her discovery, it took her a moment to lift her head, and take in the rest of the change of scenery…

And _everything_ had changed. The labyrinth was spread before them in a completely different fashion from before. Rather than stone walls and dusty paths, narrow streams and intermittent plant growth… They'd entered a _jungle_. As if the Underground were carved from cliff walls, age old trees, and steep ravines, all held together with centuries' worth of vines.

Sarah stares in wonder, running both hands over the top of her head. "What happened to the labyrinth?" She whispered, her voice hushed with awe at the sight that, many times over, dwarfed all idea of the sizable maze that had formerly stood between her, and the castle beyond the goblin city.

"We're still in it." Jareth mused matter-of-factly, as if there were nothing particularly strange about this. "The Labyrinth is very vast Sarah, and even then, only one tenth of my kingdom. The Underground, on the other hand, only has so much room." He gave a small, amused smile, crossing his arms as, for the moment, he seemed almost to ignore her, and take in the breathtaking panorama before them as well. "Sometimes the reality of things needs to be, _folded _a bit, in order for everything to fit."

He paused then, and turned back to her, adding, almost as if he expected her to find some fault with this, "It is the way it is for a reason." A bit shortly.

"Just like you." Sarah said slowly, turning to meet his gaze for a moment…

And then he looked away, for the first time as if he were the one unsettled by whatever had just passed between them. "The girl can be taught…" He muttered under his breath, starting down the new, admittedly absent path, down the far side of the slope.

Sarah frowned, and fell into step behind him, irritated with the man again. "Are you patronizing me?" She demanded, feeling that, at the very least, her words should have been taken as some sort of peace offering… And at the same time, somehow not as annoyed as she should have been.

"I am the way I am for a reason, precious!" He mocked her good humouredly, not looking back this time as he continued forward, not letting her see his smirk.

Sarah made a short sound of exasperation. "Why do you have to be so difficult?"

Glancing over his shoulder, amused, he asked right back, "Why do _you_?" Not missing a beat.

For once, Sarah didn't have a ready answer, caught somewhat off guard by the question. She wasn't difficult… was she? Well, maybe she didn't exactly _try_ to make things easy for the man… But, but… Another short sound, this one almost amused. "I don't know." She admitted quietly.

"Well," Jareth mused, slowly, "That makes two of us. And as I don't intend to change, and I imagine you don't intend to change either…" He pursed his lips a little, and said nothing for a moment, before adding, "Hm. Maybe we should just learn to deal with each other. I mean, if we really are going to be _friends, _Sarah."

Somehow certain it wasn't that simple, but unsure how to come with an argument of why not, Sarah nodded slowly. "That's fair." She agreed softly, turning to look at her other friends, who'd been silent through all this. Ludo was too absorbed in the little faery, which at some point had started braiding random bits of his fur, to pay any real attention. Hoggle though, looked… dour, and shook his head, making a sharp gesture that entailed both his arms. He didn't like it. Surprise, surprise.

"Good." Jareth was noting sagely, while she was otherwise distracted. "Because I'd _hate _for you to think I wasn't _fair…"_

It took Sarah a moment, otherwise distracted, to absorb this. Hoggle made a point of throwing his arms up, as if this made his point, before she could turn back… But she was no longer paying attention. Jareth was being Jareth again… To be honest, she wasn't sure why that had ever seemed strange. "For the record," Sarah pointed out, moving to step a little more even with the goblin king, not content to simply let him lead the way, "I still say you're harder to deal with than I am."

"I've had more practice." Jareth agreed, somewhat lightly, glancing down at her as she fell into step beside him… Smiling, someone genuinely, for the goblin king. "Don't worry, you'll catch up." Pointedly, "You've had a fantastic head start."

Sarah shook her head, but… she was smiling too. And at least for the moment, she wasn't even thinking of getting back home…

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	15. A Knight's Duty

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

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A nice, long chapter for a change... And not so much of a wait. Mind you, in return, I want you to vote in my poll, as we are drawing near to the end... And once again, I will get the replies written to the wonderful reviews you've offered so far... Once I've gotten some sleep.

It's going to be dawn soon, I think... Thank goodness I get to sleep in.

Also, I'm sorry for all the errors with the previous chapter... I hope I've caught more from being posted this time. ^^;

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There was a sense of being swallowed up in it, completely, that hadn't been there before. The trees dwarfed everything, of course, but it was far more than just being caught up in their twisting shadows… More than wading through dying foliage that reached her upper calves, and made Hoggle's every step a struggle, and more than the thick smell of vegetation and a sweet, honey-like cloying to the air, which she couldn't decide was unpleasant or wonderful, changing from one moment to the next. It was brush everywhere, fallen kings and giants of oaks, with leaves the size of umbrellas, and catching twigs…

And she swore, over everything, something that glinted when she wasn't looking right at it, like everything had been dusted in a fine coat of glitter, that blurred her eyes, and was only there when she looked away. She wondered briefly if what she was seeing was Jareth's magic… And was nowhere near ready to ask him something like that. But it cast an eerie, surrealistic quality to the faery-tale world around her…

The one thing that hadn't changed between this section of the labyrinth, and the one before… it was endless. And despite unnumbered days now, trekking through his tricky little maze, she just wasn't used to this much walking anymore. Ever since she'd gotten her license, she'd tended to drive anywhere that was more than a mile away... Clearly, when she got back, that would have to change.

So when she saw an opportunity to sit, said opportunity being a reasonably intact looking log just to the side of the trail, which didn't seem to having anything actively crawling on it at the moment, she sighed, and left Jareth's side to head over there… Though she did give it a good long look, just to be sure, before pulling her skirts up, and sitting down.

Jareth paused, frowning as he watched her walk away, but didn't actually comment on her little act of rebellion until she made an effort to make herself comfortable, making it clear that, at least for now, she was going no further. "Sarah!" He sounded almost scolding, taking slow, measured strides to where she was taking her rest. "Why are you stopping?"

She snorted indelicately at his puzzlement, but smiled, briefly. "I need to rest." She answered simply, smoothing the golden fabric over her knees, and then resting over them. "I'm still not used to running through an endless magical maze all day like the rest of you."

"Hm. Give it time." He muttered, seeming a bit irked at not being the one to make the decisions… Or being consulted on them. Still, he looked down at her for a long, studying moment, before walking back away, and bracing his back against a tree, for all appearances, inspecting his gloved right hand.

Sarah found herself keeping an eye on him, less from personal interest at the moment, than because whatever happened next would likely be a direct result of his actions… Or inactions. But no, Jareth seemed completely occupied with straightening the faded lace around his wrist with a frown… and grudgingly, musing on pots and their boiling, she relaxed a little, looking elsewhere for entertainment.

Hoggle, on the other hand, kept a very close eye on the goblin king as he moved himself, in a sidling sort of way, to the girl's side. Sort of as if, should the goblin king happen to notice, he might… not. Notice. The dwarf rubbed the back of one thickly knuckled hand against his chin, and tried to ease himself up on the log by Sarah's side, pointedly on the opposite side of where Jareth was standing, only to have a little trouble.

For her part, Sarah pretended not to notice, trying not to smile as he heaved himself up, with no particular difficulty, but a lot of colorful opinions on why things had to be so damn tall, when most of the labyrinth was shorter than he was. If she'd looked, she might have seen Jareth smiling too, still adjusting his lace…

Still, Hoggle proved to be a lot stronger than he looked, and it didn't take him long to pull himself up the fallen giant, despite the fact that it reached easily to his shoulders. Brushing his arms off, and finally settling himself into a comfortable position with a grunt, Hoggle adjusted his back, then his shoulders, then cast a peek at his companions, to make sure they weren't laughing at him.

Quickly though, more important matters seemed to settle in his mind, and he scooted closer to the mortal girl, brow furrowed, as he tugged on her sleeve to get her attention. "Um, Sarah…?" He prompted quietly, doing his best to keep his words just between them.

The girl looked over, smiled again, and scooted, herself, closer to him, so that their sides brushed. "What is it, Hoggle?" She murmured back, just as softly. "Did you want to talk about something?"

"Um…" Fighting down the blush that threatened to rise to his gruff features at being so close to the pretty girl, even prettier now than when she'd left, Hoggle ran his hand over his cap, collecting himself for a moment, before remembering what he was going to say. "Oh yeah…" He frowned, and pointed a thick finger in the goblin king's direction, hiding the gesture behind his other hand. "Should we really be trusting him, Sarah? I know you think he's your friend and all, but have you already forgotten…?"

"I haven't forgotten anything." Sarah denied, cutting him off before he could continue, her tone still quiet, but firm. "Believe me." A pause, then, "But I'm starting to think I haven't exactly been fair with him either… It's not that I trust him, mind you… But…" She turned her head a little considering the goblin king, not making a point to watch the two of them from the corner of his eye, "I think he deserves a chance."

"Humph." Hoggle leaned back on his hands a little, ducking his head stubbornly. "Don't see why. But… if it's important to you, Sarah… I guess I can try to be, _nice_, to him."

"_You _don't have to, actually." Sarah denied, a little primly. "In fact, until he stops treating you like dirt, I don't think you should have anything nice to say to him at all."

"Oh, thank goodness…" Hoggle slouched in relief, sagging over his lap more. "I just don't know if I could be nice to a guy like-" He paused at this point, and looked up at her, pointedly. "I'd do it though, Sarah. For you."

"I appreciate that." Sarah, feeling daring, threw her arm around him, and gave him a firm hug, Jareth be damned. Hoggle, being Hoggle, blushed and fidgeted, but certainly didn't look unpleased… And pointedly looked anywhere but at the goblin king.

Jareth, not giving any indication that he'd heard even part of the private exchange, much less her professing not to trust him, and certainly hadn't seen anything as offending as a _hug_, had wandered away from his leaning tree by this point, and was walking along the width of the path slowly, some short distance down, hands on his hips, head tipped up, eyes deftly scanning the treetops above… And giving no indication of what he was looking for.

A moment later though, his hand darted up into a mass of leaves that fell just over his head, twisted… and returned, a moment later, clutching a bright red fruit, much to Jareth's satisfied smile. "There." He said, matter-of-factly, before turning, and smiling, again, in Sarah's direction, holding out the shiny thing. With a sense of presentation, he bowed a little, offering her the edible orb. "Would you like an apple, Sarah?"

Said Sarah gave him a long, flat look… Before raising her eyebrows, and giving a small shrug. "…Sure…" She moved to her feet, a twist to her mouth not quite humorous, but clearly seeing the situation as a familiar one, that once they got more comfortable with each other, _might _be humorous. "Thank you."

She took the apple from his hand, and the goblin king smirked, looking, once again, like the cat with the canary. For the sake of her sanity, Sarah ignored this, and just considered the apple in her hand… Rather like it might explode at any moment, though in all truth, she honestly didn't expect him to pull anything stupid this time. If only because, if he did, they both knew damn well there wouldn't be a third chance offered.

Hoggle looked anxious, dropping down from the log, rather heavily, but not quite gathering the courage to move all the way to her side… Not when she was standing next to Jareth. "Er… Sarah, I don't think…" He hedged, not liking this a bit. "That is, it seems like this might be a bad idea…"

Jareth tipped his head with a sense of dismissal, before looking at the dwarf with generous humor. "Come, come, Hogsward…" He scolded with mock gentleness. "What's this all about? Clearly the girl trusts me…"

"No, I don't." Sarah interrupted, so matter-of-factly, and unaccusingly, that it took everyone there a moment to take in what she'd just said. She was looking at Jareth, still not quite smiling, but looking a bit amused, like she was considering it.

For a moment the goblin king just looked at her, then, as if she hadn't said a word, turned back to Hoggle, and did his best to pick up right where he'd left off. As if Hoggle had also managed to somehow not hear the girl. "You see? She has complete faith…"

"No, I don't." _Now _she was smiling, and her tone took on just a trace of a teasing edge.

Jareth threw his arms up in a show of exasperation, sighing. "Well then, she's just hungry. What does it matter…? It amounts to the same thing." He gave her a challenging little glare, crossing his arms in front of him, and managed to almost look like he wasn't smiling back. "Doesn't it, Sarah?"

"No," Sarah denied plainly, and a little slowly, in order to offer no mistake. "It doesn't." She wasn't sure at what point this had become a game, but despite herself, she was enjoying it.

The goblin king sighed deeply, a slow breath in, then out. Then he smirked. "You do like to argue, don't you, Sarah?" He taunted softly, somehow, less aggressive with his mocking this time, now that she'd initiated the game.

"With you?" She whispered, managing not to laugh. "Yes." And still smiling, the mortal girl turned her back on him, as if she could just make jokes at the expense of the king of goblins himself, and not face repercussions for it.

"Hmm." Jareth gave small nod, lip curved wryly as he let her reclaim her sense of distance. "Wonderful. Now that _that's _settled…"

Sarah didn't take a bite yet, just sort of, _strolling _back to 'her' log, and adjusting herself to sit again, turning the fruit over and over between her hands. Despite her certainty that the goblin king wasn't a complete idiot, it still took a bit of courage to take that first, solid bite… It crunched satisfactorily under her teeth, juicy and crisp, and she pointedly looked at nothing at all for a moment, as she chewed it…

And as nothing happened, she lifted her head, and considered the goblin king again… Who was still watching her, twisted smile still in place. "Are there more?" She asked slowly.

Jareth didn't seem to be expecting this, and his smile faded, just a little. "Maybe." He agreed, a little shortly. "Why do you ask?"

Sarah shook her head. "I just think Hoggle and Ludo might be hungry too. And Blue." Her free hand fanned over the uneven bark, no longer holding the piece of fruit like a shield between her and the goblin king. A small lowering of defenses, and one that, at the moment, she didn't even notice. Jareth's eyes, though followed the movement closely… "No one else has eaten since we got up either."

"What about me?" Jareth pressed sternly, adjusting his stance, and flicking his eyes away, giving no indication he'd noticed any change in the girl's behavior. "You don't think I might want something to eat too?" He sounded, a bit coarse, even to himself, and found his own hands wiping over his hips, as if to free them of some irritation. It wasn't that it bothered him, the girl trusting him… That was the whole point!

Wasn't it?

A small sound of derision from behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see Sarah regarding him wryly, apple now balanced on her knee, her other arm crossed across her lap. "You can have one too, Jareth." She assured him, in a clearly patronizing tone. "All you had to do was ask."

Despite himself, the corners of his mouth flicked in a quick expression of amusement at the girl's utter irreverence… Though he couldn't have said why it was easier to deal with her when she fended him off with teasing, rather than when she just spoke to him like another person… "You're ever so generous, Sarah." He reached up, without looking this time, and plucked another fruit, before stalking back to his former position by the bending tree, lips still slightly pursed with humor. "Let them get their own."

He didn't want her to let her guard down around him too much… And not just because he enjoyed the tension between them. It irked him that he couldn't put his finger on why though, after all his efforts to get this far.

Maybe he just didn't want her to start _expecting_ things from him… He wasn't like the people from her world, or her motley assortment of friends, and in all truth, he had no desire to be. Why would he? He was the goblin king, and had been for longer than any human could ever dream of being who they were. He'd done his best to make this painfully clear…

Holding the apple lightly in one hand, he felt for the silver knife he always carried, currently tucked into his waistband, and with the air of having done so many times before, began to slice the peel off in a long, winding spiral… Before growing distracted by the sound of the two imbeciles crashed through the branches to try to get their own treats, Ludo of course gathering them for the smaller man, who was left hopelessly out of reach…

And his gaze landed on Sarah again, briefly. Biting into her apple without any care in the world for appearance or etiquette, catching the juice that dribbled past her lips with her fingertips, too intent on watching Blue, pulling stubbornly away on a heavy fruit, unable to separate it from the tree, to notice him standing on manners.

Jareth frowned, absently, and wiped the blade clear on his pants, tucking the knife back away, and with a decisive snap, breaking the peel off where he'd cut it, and tossing it carelessly over his shoulder. Damn it if she could eat an apple without worrying how she looked, and he had to stand on etiquette! He gave the apple a good, savage bite, and leaned back slowly, feeling somehow satisfied by it. And reflecting, vaguely, on whether that completely irreverent attitude was part of why he'd wanted her to come back…

She was, really, the only one who'd ever offered him a _real_ challenge…

He glanced at Hoggle, who was divvying up his 'share' from the apples Ludo had picked, casting suspicious looks towards _him_ the whole time… Unsurprisingly, Ludo managed to end the deal with the better part of ten, if only because he started sulking when Hoggle took more than two. Throwing his hand up in frustration, Hoggle took his two apples, clutching them to his chest as he waddled back to where Sarah was sitting, then paused in dismay at the thought of having to climb up on the log again.

After a moment, he shrugged, plopped to the dirt, threw his back against the wood, and started examining his prizes with a pleased eye… Before pausing, rubbing one off on his grimy vest, and offering it upwards, to the girl. "Er… you want another one, Sarah? That is, I can't eat much, me being so small, and all…" It was clearly a lie though, and when Sarah glanced at him, smiled, and shook her head, the dwarf looked relieved. "Oh. Okay. Good. I mean, uh…"

Whatever else he had to say was lost on the goblin king, as what might have been the largest apple the tree had to offer came whizzing by his head, forcing him to draw back sharply, and give a stern eye to Blue… Who, having finally gained her fruit, was zipping around with it merrily, swinging the heavy fruit by its stem as, one by one, she aimed at each of their heads with it, laughing her high, fluid giggle. Bob, bob, bob… _Dodge!_

Jareth shook his head, and retook his former place. Why on earth the girl bothered with _faeries_, and the like… He watched as she crashed , fruit first, into a section of tree, fell, tumbling with it, and then sat there giggling more once she'd pulled herself upright, wrapping all four limbs around the red treat possessively.

Okay, that _was_ amusing…

"Jareth?" The prompt came out of nowhere, and he turned, a little surprised, to see Sarah addressing him again. Perhaps more worryingly, she didn't look to be on her guard at all at the moment. Which left him uncertain how to respond.

"Yes, Sarah?" He prompted right back, after a moment of silence. "Something troubling you?"

The mortal girl considered him evenly, her eyes genuinely puzzled. "I was just wondering… Why are you doing this?"

He frowned, a little, and moved away from his support slowly. "Doing _what?"_

Sarah shook her head. "Helping us?" She pressed, softly. "I mean," She added, quickly showing that she wasn't quite as comfortable pressing this as she'd seemed before, "I'm grateful…" She turned his eyes up, meeting his gaze evenly again. "But why?"

"Us." Jareth mused, focusing on this first part of her question, as his eyes flicked over her friends, one by one… And then, almost pointedly, not saying anything further about _that_. "Did you ever think that it could be as simple as the fact that you _asked_ me to, Sarah?" Abandoning the distance between them, he walked over to the girl, considering her from a closer vantage. "Because someone else might assume that was the reason."

Letting her breath out in an admission of truth, Sarah nodded slowly, looking down at her hands, and her now bare core, before pressing her lips together firmly, and going on, regardless. "I know," Sarah agreed, "But," And this time she didn't look up. "You didn't leave this time. I thought you'd be gone by morning. You've always disappeared as soon as you could, before."

"Before." He echoed the word softly, wondering himself what it meant, as he sank down onto the heavy wooden surface beside her, watching, with half an eye, as the dwarf made a point of wiggling away to put some distance between them… But Sarah just sat there, waiting for him to say more. He almost frowned, a little. That was the thing about humans, how much things changed with them…

He relaxed himself a little, easing his spine, and leaning over his lap. Legs crossed, arms crossed. Staring musingly at nothing at all. "You know, Sarah," He prompted, after a moment of sitting like this, "You think a lot of things about me." For once, his words lacked any sense of sarcasm or gloating, just oddly, matter-of-fact, before looking up at her, and allowing a small, mocking smile. "One day I hope the things you think of me won't be quite so… unpleasant."

Sarah frowned. Now she fidgeted, as if suddenly realizing that the goblin king was, in fact, sitting next to her. Her long time enemy… Her new friend? She wasn't sure she could believe it herself. "They're not." She denied flatly. Not quite in defiance… More as if, she were trying to convince both of them, when she said it.

He gave her an even, disbelieving look, that told her what he thought of that. He didn't even have to say, _oh, really…?_

"Well," She frowned, amending herself slowly, "Not _that_ unpleasant."

"Hmm." Jareth shrugged, thoughtfully. "It's certainly a start, Sarah." Pushing himself up again, he got back to his feet, and paced a few steps away, before turning, looking back, and pausing, as if to say something else, before falling silent, and frowning. He'd intended to say something cruel… And come up empty. That had never happened before.

He tried glowering at Ludo instead, but the big red beast was too happy, crunching away at his pile of fruit. Open would go his great maw, in would go an apple, whole, and then a good solid crunch would followed it, accompanied by a harmless, goofy grin. Failing there, Jareth turned his attention to the faery… Who'd acquired a sharp thorn from somewhere, and was busy mutilating her apple gleefully with both hands, pausing to lick the juice spray from her arms from time to time, and, well, utterly ignored anything else.

And Hoggle? Well, Hoggle was too easy. He sighed, and dug his heel into the ground, and looked skyward, at the twisting, knotted branches. "Are we about done here, yet?" He demanded at last, kicking over Ludo's remaining pile of apples irritably, and stalking some length down the road while the red yeti hurried to gather them up again, not looking put out in the least. "Well?" He demanded sharply, throwing his arms out to the side. "You don't have forever…"

Sarah shook her head, exasperated, and got to her feet with a sweep of her skirts, pretending, for all concerned, that she'd just _happened_ to decide this was the best time to get going again herself. "Come along, Ludo, Hoggle…" She paused, and cast a pointed look at the sticky, stab happy faery, crossing her arms, as she added, with a sigh, "_Blue_!"

"Coming, Sarah." Hoggle frowned, brushing himself off as he got off the ground, and shooing at Ludo as well, when the larger man was more hesitant to move on, if it meant leaving any of his meal. "Oh, go on then, I'll carry some of them for you, you great oaf!"

Sarah ran her hands through her hair, smiled, and shook her head, waiting for them patiently. She might need to be in a hurry, but this wasn't like the last time. She didn't see a few seconds as making a difference either way…

-(break)-

The two hadn't said anything for a while, less as if there were still some hostility between them, or lingering tension over the collapsing of walls, than as if, now that they _weren't_ constantly at each other's throats, they weren't quite certain what to do with themselves. Sarah twisted her hair between her fingers a lot, and snuck peeks at the goblin king, when she thought he wasn't looking. _He_ always noticed of course, and several times, started to say something, only to frown, look a bit confused, and offer nothing at all.

_And it all started out so well_… Sarah, once again in the process of wrapping her hair in a slow curl around her finger, looked at Jareth again, her eyes taking in his somehow familiar features, despite their having known each other, in truth, only for a handful of minutes at a time, spread out rather sporadically. "How did it come to this?" She asked softly… Not hostile, but not sure what she was supposed to be. It was so easy when the two of them were teasing each other, even in play, but when they were genuinely trying to be nice… Actually, the idea of Jareth genuinely trying to be nice to anyone boggled her enough as it was, but she had no other explanation for why he was being so quiet. _If you don't have anything nice to say…_

"I honestly hadn't thought ahead that far." Jareth admitted, a bit sourly, not for one moment mistaking what she was saying. He paused, to offer his arm over a particularly large fallen branch in their path, noting when he looked back at Hoggle, who just went around it, rather than ask for help. "I don't suppose you have any ideas…"

"I don't know." She admitted softly, falling against him, for an instant, as her foot refused to find solid ground again… And not pushing away right away, but looking up at him, hands still clasped, before finally straightening again. Jareth smiled just a little, his eyes glinting under his smoke and gold lids. "But I don't think we have to decide now," She went on, making that smile fade, just a little, without her noticing. "I mean, I'm not going back until I find my dreams, and the way things are going now, who knows when that will be?"

"Yes." Jareth agreed, a bit hollowly. "Those." Sarah gave him a quizzical look, but didn't press it, just walking side by side with the dreaded king of the goblins, almost close enough that their clothing could brush, if they couldn't. "Sarah," He seemed, for the first time, loathe to pursue the conversation with the girl. "Have you given any more thought about _that_? About what you're looking for, I mean?"

"Not really…" Sarah mused, coming to a gradual stop, and pursing her lips in thought. "I mean, probably not for a few days now. I suppose I just thought I'd know them when I saw them." She glanced up at him, soft eyes worried. "I mean, don't you think I would? They _are _my dreams…"

Jareth sighed, coming to a stop as well, and crossed his loosely clothes arms, giving her a rather pressed look. "They are, aren't they?" He agreed, rather enigmatically, before shaking his head, and, as if giving up on her as a lost cause, starting forward again.

Sarah frowned, but fell into step behind him… Then quickly caught up, determined, in her own stubborn way, to match the goblin king stride for stride… And they walked in silence some more. And Sarah grew more frustrated. It was easy to be angry with the goblin king, too easy. Why did he have to make it seem like she was such a child for not understanding something that was clearly just so simple for him… Even though _he_ refused to tell her?

Shaking her head, she pointedly avoided looking at him again… Less because she was angry, than because she was worried that it really might be that simple, and she was being particularly dense in front of the man who, all other things aside, had been her fantasy crush once… If admittedly, before she'd actually known him.

"Hoggle," She prompted instead, looking back over her shoulder, and trying not to reflect on such embarrassing details, "Are we close to Sir Didymus yet?" They had to have been walking for hours since the last time they'd stopped… And she was getting tired again. Not to mention wishing she'd thought to bring along an extra apple or two herself.

Hoggle looked up in surprise, a bit sharply, and just stared at the girl blankly for a moment, before his brain seemed to kick in. Like he'd expected to just be forgotten, now that Sarah and Jareth were actually getting along… sort of.

"Oh, um, yes, I think so." He hesitated, looked to both sides, and gave, overall, the unmistakable impression that he really just didn't know where he was. "Can't be far anyway." He assures her quickly, falling into step again, to avoid being left behind. When Sarah just knitted her brows, about to ask if something was bothering him, he added, with a pointed gesture towards the goblin king, "What? Don't he know?"

"Of course I know, you little twit," Jareth muttered, not really annoyed so much as amused. "But I believe the girl was asking you." And he gave the dwarf what had to be one of his most sincere smiles. "Why? Can't _you_ tell her? As I recall, you used to know this labyrinth like the back of your hand…"

"Yeah!" Hoggle agreed, with a surprising boldness, in Sarah's estimation. "But then you went and changed everything, and… uh…" He glanced uncertainly towards the mortal girl, as if he didn't want to say anything more before her.

"And you were too busy moping about, mourning your poor lost Sarah, to even make an attempt to learn it again." Jareth sighed, with feigned pity. "Really Hoggle, I _warned _you about losing your head over a girl…"

Sarah turned, and gave Jareth a scathing look, but before she could more than open her mouth, Hoggle was cutting in again, sounding embarrassed, but… strong. In a way she didn't remember him being. "Well, maybe I have lost my head over her," He agreed, sort of stubbornly, "Maybe she's worth losing my head over."

Jareth smiled again, just a little more dangerously this time, as he faced the smaller man, walking backwards down the trail, his hands behind him. "Do you mind if I get that in writing, Hoggle?" He asked silkily, for once, deliberately not getting the man's name wrong. "I may need to call you on that, later."

Hoggle lifted one thick finger, and shook it at the goblin king, flushed, and trembling in anger… And maybe a little fear. "Don't pretend you ain't lost your head over her too, Jareth!" He rasped daringly, making Jareth's eyes narrow in warning, as he came to a complete stop now, making Hoggle quickly step backwards. "You and I both know you been brooding all moody-like ever since she beat you… And now here the two of you are, making like _friends_!"

"So maybe I don't know where we are!" He went on, even as Jareth grew very, very silent as he watched his former servant. "It's _your _labyrinth! And she asked _you _for help! So- so, either help her, or- or get out of my way, so I can!"

Jareth considered the man for a long, silent moment, his eyes etched from ice, not so much as lifting a finger against him. Just when Hoggle was getting ready to either wet himself, or throw himself down to his knees, and swear he didn't mean it, and beg Jareth not to have his head… The goblin king's eyes flicked away, dismissively, as if the man were utterly beneath his notice. "I shall never understand your choice in friends," Jareth noted coldly, to Sarah now, rather than the dwarf. "But as it seems I now number myself among them, I suppose I no longer have room to judge."

Hoggle wanted to sag in relief… Though he also wanted to pull himself as tall as he'd go, and shout, _That's right!_ But just when he might have worked out the courage too, Jareth gave him one last, steely glance, and silenced any words the other man might have had to say.

When it became clear that the confrontation was ended, _and _who the victor was, all without a single threat or raised voice, Jareth shrugged, turned just a little to the side of where they had been walking, and pointed out into the trees. "He's over there." The goblin king noted matter-of-factly, as if this should be common knowledge. "Right beyond that little stand of trees, there."

"He is?" Sarah quickly forgot all about the close call between Hoggle and Jareth, turned, and stood on her tiptoes, shielding her eyes with her hand to get a better view. "Those ones there, with the white flowers?"

"Yes, yes…" Jareth agreed impatiently, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, clearly growing tired of his current company- or some of it- And not eager to add more. "Run off then, say hello…" He cast a glance at Hoggle, adding, between his teeth, "_We'll_ _catch up_."

"Um… Uh, Sarah? Hoggle quickly broke into a run after her, even as she quickly headed that way herself, missing the implied threat. "S-Sarah, wait up!"

She almost fell, twice, twisting her feet in the thick leaves, fallen branches, and tall brush, but Sarah didn't slow down for an instant… Or doubt Jareth's word. Sir Didymus was just ahead… Her heart was racing. The last of the really close friends she'd made here, once she found him-!

Once she found him… she didn't know…

She faltered to a stop, confused, for the first time, by the question Jareth had asked only moments before. What _was_ she expecting to find? One of the goblin king's spinning bubbles, holding all her dreams floating about inside? But, Jareth hadn't _done_ this…

"En guarde, ruffian! Who goes there?" Sarah from drawn from her brief moment of confusion by the more immediate issue of a knee-high fox, riding a sheepdog straight at her, sword drawn. "Stand where you are, and be cut down!"

"No, _no_, Sir Didymus, it's me!" Sarah assured the 'knight' quickly, taking several quick steps back, and holding her hand up, in an effort to calm him down.

Sir Didymus came to a halt, frowning, and looked her up and down. "You?" He demanded, a little sharply. "And just who might _you _be? I'll have you warned, I am a knight, and I am not afraid to defend myself, or my lady!"

His lady? "Didymus! _I'm_ your lady!" She sank to her knees in the thick loam, bringing both hands to her chest, and meeting his eyes, deeply. "It's me… Sarah."

The fox froze, then slowly leaned forward, and peeled back his eye patch- which was, as far as she knew, only there for appearances- to get a better look. "Lady Sarah?" He echoed after a moment, clearly puzzled. "You _look _like Lady Sarah…" He nudged Ambrosias to the side, circling her slowly. "You _sound_ like Lady Sarah…" He went on, finally coming to a stop, just a few steps away, "You even _smell _like Lady Sarah…" He made a point of sniffing the air expertly, despite having given her reason to doubt the sense before-

"But…" And here he paused, before swinging down from his steed, and approaching her on foot, uncertainly. When he was right in front of her, he looked her down, then up, then down again, and confessed, a little puzzledly, "I remember you being a great deal smaller."

Sarah laughed. "Didymus!" She swung him into a hug, and for a moment his fighting instincts kicked in, and he snarled for an instant, before going slack, and looking up at her in unfeigned surprise. "Lady Sarah! It _is _you!" He laughed, as Sarah set him back down, waving his sword in celebration. "Oh, joyous day, Lady Sarah has returned to us, and… My brother! Is that you?" His initial greeting forgotten, he ran past her to greet Ludo… Stopping sharp, two feet or so away, and looking puzzled again. "I remember _you_ being a great deal smaller as well."

"How wonderful…" Jareth interrupted, before the touching reunion could carry on any further, immediately sending Sir Didymus into his usual fit of short darts and growls, whenever he saw something that might threaten his lady. "All your _miscreant _little friends, back together again…" A wave of his hand in the knight's direction. "Already doing their best to annoy me, as if you'd never left." He turned to Sarah with a smirk. "Feel better, Sarah?"

"Yes." Sarah smiled as she got to her feet, pretending, for the moment, that Jareth wasn't looking to stir up trouble again. "I am." Then she turned back to the fox, leaning down to catch his hands gently. "Didymus! It's okay! Jareth's here…" She paused, and cast a glance towards the goblin king. "Jareth's here to help."

-Jareth raised his eyebrows, briefly, then looked away.-

"And…" She turned back to the small knight. "I need your help too, Sir Didymus. Please."

"Of-of course, my lady." Didymus assured her, not only calm now, but very serious as well. Before she could say anything more though, Didymus's eye went wide, and he pulled back from her, bobbing in excitement. "Wait! I know! I know what it is!" He turned, and darted a few steps away from her, only to turn back, and add, happily, "You search for your dreams! Well fear not, lady," He straightened, dignified and proud, "I have found them, and I have been guarding them for nigh on two years now… with my life!"

Emotions rushed over Sarah, too quickly for her to pin any one, save for a mingling of excitement, relief, and… disappointment? She quickly pushed that last away. "You found them? Oh, I knew you…" Her word stopped, shortly, when the full weight of what he was saying sunk in. "…Wait. Wait. Did you say… Two years?" She whispered, suddenly feeling like something as vital as breath had been pulled from her, leaving her weak.

"Tirelessly," He boasted, brandishing his tiny sword, and looking proud as anything, "Never once leaving my post, my lady! Yes indeed!" He smiled, and suddenly looked… like he really had been waiting as long as he said. Tired, his uniform torn, his fur looking in good need of a bath… And endlessly happy to have served 'his lady' so well.

"Didymus…" Sarah whispered, wanting to sink back to her knees, only to be caught by the fox's hand, and drawn forward, to his hiding place among the blossoming trees. "I can't believe…"

"When you stopped calling for me," He went on, with newfound energy, now that she was there again, "I knew they'd been taken, but the question was," He paused, and looked up at her with a frown, "When? And by whom?"

Quickly turning back to his hiding place, he got down on his hands and knees, and started digging, never slowing the flow of his story. "_Then _I remembered your _abduction_, and entrapment in that mound of forgotten treasures! I returned post haste, and searched until I found them!" He stopped in his digging, gently wiping the layers of dirt away from the fragile object therein. "There, you see?" He whispered, holding his treasure up reverently for her approval. "Your dreams…"

Sarah… stared, wordlessly. In his tiny hands, Didymus held the doll she was certain she really had lost years before, clad in a dirty white dress… a princess, ready for a ball. It had meant so much to her once… She'd wanted to be that girl so much, once… "Oh, Didymus, this isn't…" Then quickly caught her tongue, and looked down at his eager expression, so _happy_ to have done a knight's duty. Two years. _Two years_! How could she tell him that it was just a broken toy, that she hadn't even missed?

Her eyes welled up with tears, and she felt stupid, and angry with herself. This was all her fault… Why had she had to lose her dreams? She loved this world so much, as dangerous and horrible and beautiful as it was, and she'd missed her friends more and more every _day_, and they'd been _here_, waiting for her to come back… Hoggle in his swamp, Didymus guarding this _stupid _toy… And she was no closer to finding her dreams than when she'd started!

And she couldn't, couldn't, _couldn't_ let him know that. It wasn't one of her dreams. But… it sort of, was. She'd used to dream about being this faery tale princess in a dancing dress, and… And that counted, right? So it sort of was… She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand, smiled through the pain in her gut, and kissed the top of his head gently, clutching the broken toy to her chest. "No, it is." She whispered, softly. "You're right. This is one of my dreams… Thank you."

The little fox glowed, standing straighter and taller than she would have thought he could "I knew it!" He proclaimed proudly… And with something like relief, as if it had occurred to him, too, that he might have been mistaken… or might be left, waiting for her, forever. There was no trace of that doubt now though. "You see, I didn't leave it unguarded for a moment! I knew you would return, searching…"

She caught his chin gently, bringing his eyes to meet hers. "Sir Didymus," She whispered again, almost pleadingly, "Two years?"

The knight's face softened, and something, oddly tender showed there, serious and gentle… And noble. "I would have guarded them forever, Lady Sarah." He assured her without hesitation. "I would, do anything, for you." Then, as if realizing that holding her gaze that long might be seen as unbecoming, he flustered a moment, drawing back, and adding, with his usual boldness, "After all, what is a knight, without his lady?"

"Hmph." An unimpressed sound interrupted them before either could say more, and Sarah looked up at the goblin king, who for once, seemed to find no humor in the situation. Her chest seized, briefly, she knew he was going to say the wrong- "And so the child who dreamed of being a knight, becomes one mongrel riding atop another, and guarding a piece of garbage." He smiled, maybe the emptiest expression she'd ever seen grace his features, as he turned back to her. "Aren't you _impressed_, Sarah?"

"That's Lady Sarah to you, ruffian!" Didymus snapped, clearly still ready to spring to her defense, Sarah's assurance of him 'helping' her, cast easily aside in favor of old grudges.

In almost the same breath, Sarah heard herself yell, "It's not garbage!" Loud enough for her voice to break, as she stumbled to her feet again, clutching the forgotten keepsake to her chest so tightly it hurt. She was suddenly very, very ready to be furious with Jareth again…

"It's a broken _toy_." Jareth muttered mercilessly, something dark and inscrutable in his eyes as he met hers. "And didn't you _yourself _say it was nothing but junk? Worthless?" A pause, and a challenging tilt to his head. "Or, has that changed, Sarah?"

Didymus, meanwhile, heard nothing past Jareth's words that Sarah had said it was worthless, once, whatever she said now. Many, many long days suddenly showed themselves in his eyes, and a sudden deep fear of failure, as he looked up at her with hurt eyes. "Junk, my lady?" He echoed softly, begging her to deny it.

"It's not junk!" She repeated sharply, angry, ready to tear up again, and pushing such weakness away. "It's one of my dreams!" Her voice fell, that quickly, into her own softness, her own sense of vulnerability, that she'd tried for so long to hide behind heavy walls. "One I'd lost."

Still holding it to her chest, her eyes flicked, here and there for a moment, passing over Jareth's angrily, before settling on the small fox again. "Thank you, Sir Didymus." She whispered, her throat tight. "You have done, more than duty could have ever asked of you."

Didymus looked up seriously, then sighed, and smiled, looking more than anything like, now that his duty was over, he'd very much like a chance to rest. Still… "Anything for you, my lady." he whispered meaningfully.

Jareth watched Sarah sit down in the dirt again, never mind the pretty dress he'd chosen for her so painstakingly, and allowed himself a smirk, while the girl wasn't looking. _It's about time, Sarah… _He thought again, as he had when she'd first summoned him back, after so long away. Snorting indelicately, he turned, and left them there, and waited for Sarah to be ready to journey on, once again.

Still, her comment about having plenty of time to figure out where things stood between them… It returned to twist at him, despite his best attempts to ignore it. There wasn't plenty of time, after all… In fact, there was very little time left for the girl…

-(break)-


	16. Stay

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

-(break)-

Jareth led the way in silence, Sarah too absorbed in enjoying her reunion with long lost friends to question whether or not he knew where he was going. He was torn between watching her… And not letting himself watch her. Not willing to face what would likely soon lead to a goodbye… This time, maybe forever. His plans had seemed to make so much sense, right up until she was quickly running out of time…

His lips pressed together, frustrated at how, when it came down to it, how little choice he would actually have in the matter. Just like before. And it was getting under his skin more than he'd expected. Part of his mind demanded to keep her there, by any and all means… There were rules against it, of course, but old rules meant less and less these days. Some of them, anyway. And all he would really have to do, to keep her here, to _trap _her here, whether she willed it or no, was _wait._

So why had he convinced himself that it wasn't that simple?

Turning his head, he regarded the laughing, playing group of friends. Didymus, riding on Ludo's shoulder. Ambrosias, running in circles around their feet, barking happily, ears flying to the wind, tail going crazy. Hoggle, trundling along gamely by Sarah's side… Smiling, as he fell so deep into conversation with her, that he forgot the goblin king's presence. Blue zipping around and around in ever tighter circles, doing her best to catch every snippet of conversation between them…

"…What do you think, Jareth?" Sarah's eyes lifted, meeting his… filled with warmth, light, life… Affection, of a sort. For _him_.

"What do I think about _what_?" He asked crossly, not having been paying attention to the actual conversation, so much as watching Sarah unfold, in the presence of all her closest friends, like some sort of shimmering moth, trembling with the potential of its wings. "Do you honestly expect me to be paying attention to all…" He waved his hand dismissively. "_That_?"

Sarah smirked, throwing her hair back with one hand, and shook her head tolerantly… As if she were already so used to all his little mannerisms, and no longer found them the least bit strange. "The Winter Solstice!" She pressed, eyes still lit up from behind at things being… _right_ again. "Sir Didymus says it's the biggest celebration of the year, in the Underground." Her expression turned soft and hopeful. "Do you think I can visit, when it happens? I want to see the sky lit up with colors!" She waved her hand, vaguely, spinning in the direction of mountains that couldn't currently be seen. "And dance, and hear the fae song…"

His eyes grew, strange… And anyone who didn't know him might have sworn they looked fond. Gentle, even. But he looked away from her dismissively, in the next breath. "Do you think the Underground is some sort of theme park, Sarah, that you came come and go to, whenever you like?" His tone was, in opposition to his expression only a moment before, hard. "Do you think _I_," He turned, and made a hard gesture to his own chest. "Do you think I have nothing better to do, than ferry you back and forth, on a whim?"

The human girl looked surprised at his sudden change in mood, and looked at him uncertainly for a moment, before moving away from her friends, dropping Hoggle's hand, even, and hurrying to walk even with him. Her eyes, searching, studied the ill-mooded king. "What's wrong?" She asked. A little breathlessly from her run. "Is something the matter?"

Jareth shook his head, not bringing himself to quite look at her… Annoyed with himself, annoyed with her… angry, for some reason he couldn't understand himself, and…

Scared. Helplessly, in over his head, lost all grasp of control over anything, _scared_. "Do you still think this is just a game, Sarah?" He rasped, shaking his head at the futility of it all. Of ever thinking he _had_ control over the fate of the human girl, one beyond his world, beyond his rule… "That this is all just some faery tale, with a happy ending waiting for you after every page?"

She stopped, too surprised by his words to follow… Then reached out, before he could escape the length of her arm, and took his sleeve, gently, in her delicate grasp. "Jareth…" She stared at him, unwaveringly, her voice gaining strength when he still just stared ahead. "Jareth, look at me!" Grudgingly, he turned, and…

The girl had no idea. _He'd_, had no idea. The way the sun, or something like it, caught the highlights in her flyaway hair, her deep eyes, brown and soft, with a kiss of green behind them… Mossy, and gentle, and worried… Her brows knit, her pale lips soft and questioning…

He reached out, without thinking, and ran his fingertips over the top of her head, tucking away a thousand wild strands that danced unbound in the careless wind. And strangely, she let him, just watching his expression, not sure why he was suddenly in such a grim mood.… And then she caught this hand too, and frowned, serious. "If something was wrong, Jareth… You'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

"Of course not." Jareth whispered, his throat suddenly dry. "Whatever gave you that idea, Sarah?" He released her, or tried to, only to have her hold on… And for a moment, he let her. A moment, confusing, dizzying somehow… And he turned away, and reclaimed his hands, forcibly. "You trust me too much, Sarah." He said flatly, starting away from her again.

"That's what I been saying all along…" He could hear Hoggle saying in the background, ignored by even Sarah at the moment. "You trust him too damn much…!"

"Hoggle, be quiet!" Sarah denied harshly, making the man fall silent, before turning back to the goblin king. "Of course I trust you! It's what friends do!" She caught him again, this time by the cloak, and pulled, hard, forcing him to stop too, or risk tearing it. When he turned to rebuke her, she met his eyes in challenge, not for a moment giving ground. "Are you telling me that you don't want to be my friend anymore, Jareth?"

He started to answer, started to, and then sighed, and surrendered trying to make the girl see the position she was in… yet. "Well," He said after a moment, shaking his head. "I can't promise I'll be a _good _friend."

"If you weren't a good friend," Sarah answered right back, without missing a beat, "You wouldn't warn me." She let the crisp fabric go, slowly. "What is this about, Jareth? What's wrong?"

Jareth shook his head, looking away again, angrily. "What's _wrong,_ Sarah… Is that you once again fail to grasp full difficulty of the situation… And, I would rather that I could risk being so lax as well." He lifted his hand, and gestured, carelessly, before them… Branch work and heavy vine peeling back to unobstructed the direction he was indicating, until a small, squat stone wall came into sight, moss eaten and weather worn, and little more imposing than any bit of falling ruin. "We head there."

"There?" Sarah craned her neck, almost looking along the length of his arm itself, making him give her a short look, drop it, and step away, already going on ahead. Sarah quickly moved to catch up. "What's there, Jareth?"

"I suppose you'll see," He mused slowly, his tone utterly unreadable now, "Won't you?" And for now, it was clear that this was all he would say.

Giving up on the moods of volatile kings, Sarah paused long enough for him to go on ahead, and the rest of her friends to come even with her. Casting glances at each of them, to see if they knew what was going on here… Didymus paid little or no attention at all, observing the skies admiringly from his vantage on Ludo's shoulder… Ludo, himself, too happy at their reunion to even notice Sarah's exchange… Blue, being Blue, as always…

Hoggle, no longer smiling, and pointedly looking anywhere but at her, the mound of stone ahead, or the goblin king in question. Sarah pressed her lips together firmly, and chose to fall into step with him… Lacing her fingers behind her back, she turned her face up, pretending, for the moment, that she didn't care _what_ the goblin king was hiding. "It's so beautiful here, don't you think so, Hoggle?" She mused, a poor attempt, and she knew it, to make her friend lower his guard. "Sometimes I forget that the Labyrinth really can be a wonderful place…"

Hoggle glanced at her furtively, then shook his head, and turned stubbornly back to his feet. "Don't see what's so wonderful about it…" He muttered under his breath, clenching and unclenching his large hands.

"Well, this forest, for one…" Sarah began, only to be cut off by the small man, dismissing the idea with a curt gesture of his hand.

"S'trees, that's all it is." He denied sourly. "You got trees in your world, don't you? …Tress, and vines, and stupid," He stumbled at this point, and turned, kicking angrily at the length of wood that had tripped him, "Stupid broken branches!" He shrugged, and started walking again. "I'd say Jareth ain't got no imagination, but that-"

"What was it that you would say about me, Haggis?" Jareth prompted, having at some point been lost to the two of them before them, and appearing, as was his wont, directly from behind, to prove nothing escaped his ears. He was smiling, utterly without humor, as he advanced on the man. "Did you just say that _I have no imagination_?"

"N-no, yer majesty…. That is, yes, but, what I meant was… um…" He fumbled for the right words, forcing a smile as he backed away. "No one would say that _you_, your majesty, have no imagination…!"

"Jareth!" Sarah reached out, and pressed her hand against the goblin king's chest, effectively 'stopping' his advance. "Stop trying to intimidate poor Hoggle!"

The goblin king did stop, his eyes flicking to hers, then down to his chest, where her fingers rested against bare skin… And smiled, still without amusement, and turned his attention to her. "Then I suggest, Sarah…" He took her hand, firmly, in his own, "That you cease trying to wiggle information out of _my _creatures."

Sarah just stared at him, frustrated. "Jareth," She whispered, openly confused now, "What's gotten into you?"

Jareth fell silent, watching her with sharp, steely eyes… And then turned away, releasing her in the same moment. "It doesn't matter." He denied curtly. "You journey is almost over, Sarah. You'll have plenty of time to think about it when you're back home."

"Almost over…?" Sarah echoed, caught off guard by the words. "Jareth, what do you…?" She spun, just to her side, and focused on Hoggle instead. "_Hoggle!_ What does he mean?" When the dwarf just looked at Jareth, shook his head wordlessly, and stared down at the dirt, Sarah just turned back to the goblin king, her own eyes suddenly flashing with anger. "Tell me this wasn't all some trick, goblin king." She whispered.

"Jareth." He corrected automatically, though from the way he paused after he said it, he hadn't meant to. Pursing his lips, he turned back on the girl. "And of course it was a trick!" He denied, with a flourish of his arms. "What do you expect? Do you really think you could have found what you needed to find, if you knew what you were looking for?" He shook his head, and turned away, running his hand over his mouth in frustration.

"And what was I looking for, _goblin king_?" She asked softly, angry, and hurt, more than angry. Why did he have to do this? Why wasn't anything ever what it seemed in this place, even the things she wanted to be? "You?"

A moment of strained silence, then a soft, flat laugh. "Yes, me, you wretched mortal _girl_." He agreed callously, tipping his face up, but no longer looking at her. "Me, and everything I stand for, Sarah! The Labyrinth, the Underground, its magics… _Your_ friends, _my_ subjects…" He turned, glaring at her, his face as full of emotion as she'd ever seen it before. "_Your_ dreams, Sarah… Everything you once believed in, that _you_ surrendered when you left!" An angry pause. "Are you _beginning _to understand?"

Overwhelmed by what she saw in the goblin king's eyes, her own confusion, and a deep desire to believe that this hadn't all been for nothing, Sarah shook her head, and anger lost among a thousand other, stronger feelings, whisper, "No. I'm not."

Jareth threw his hand up in exasperation. "Well then. Why does _that _not surprise me?"

The next voice to interrupt was a surprising one. "Now, don't be so hard on her, Jareth…"Hoggle fretted, walking a few steps towards the angry king, who gave him a look that distinctly suggested the man was being suicidal at the moment. "She ain't used to things here the way we are…"

"We?" The goblin king echoed coldly.

Hoggle nodded, accepting the rebuke. "Well, I have been here almost a hundred years meself, sire. I know a bit about how the Underground works… though not as well as you, of course!" He added hastily. Then, in a show of courage, "But her? The girl's been in the human world for _four_ years now…"

Jareth shook his head, dismissing the smaller man's words. "That is precisely the point!" He muttered under his breath, before turning back to the girl, angry again as he pointed at her accusingly. "You forgot how to believe in your friends!" Swept his arms out, in the next breath, encompassing all of their surroundings. "Forgot how to believe in this!"

A pause, as the words were shortly broken off… Then, more softly, "You _started _to forget how to believe in _me_." His eyes, for a moment, if not quite vulnerable, then… disappointed. Maybe hurt. "It was all you could do to call me when you did, Sarah. And even then I wasn't certain if it was possible anymore."

Sarah, her throat dry, swallowed against the lump rising in it… Suddenly, out of anger, out of all the defiance she'd done her best to summon back up from where it had lain coiled in her stomach for so long, and stared off at nothing at all, just lost for words

"Forgot how to-" She whispered at last, then shook her head, and covered her mouth with one hand, as if to deny the words she was still saying. "So that's what my dreams were?" Her eyes flicked up to him, almost empty, but at least understanding now. "That's what I had lost, and what I was looking for…" A soft sound. Broken. "How to believe in all of you…"

The goblin king straightened, slowly, and regarded her, tight lipped. Ludo just watched, Hoggle stared at his feet some more…

"My lady?" She turned, just to the side, where Didymus was watching her, with his small, earnest eyes. "You _have _found what you were looking for, haven't you?" Sarah nodded, not sure what else to say. "And, I _did _help you to recover it, did I not?" The little fox pressed. Sarah smiled, fleetingly, and nodded again. "Then, Sarah…" This last, offered a bit hesitantly, "Do you intend… to leave us, again? Now that you have what you came for?"

This, Sarah didn't have a ready answer for. "I'll come back." She whispered at last when she did, wondering, for one brief instant, if it could ever really be that easy. If anything in the Underground was _ever_ that simple.

"No, you won't." The goblin king was speaking now, softly, but with a finality that didn't seem likely to be successfully argued. "That's the one catch to our little deal. If you leave, Sarah, you can never come back."

Sarah eyes turned sharply to his, seeking something in his expression to summon back her annoyance… But it died at the look on his face, grim, controlled… forcibly so. "I told you Sarah, this was your last chance to reclaim your dreams." He shook his head, and advanced on her slowly. "I've already bent the rules further than they were ever meant to go… When you lose them again, you won't be able to come back to retrieve them a second time."

Staring, she swallowed, again. Not wanting to believe the words. And meeting Jareth's gaze, unable not to believe them. "Why? " She whispered, her voice shaking, "You, don't want me to come back, or…"

"It has nothing to do with what I want, Sarah. " He denied, just as evenly, just as emptily as before. "It has never had anything to do with what I want, or I never would have let you leave the first time. " A pause, as he advanced again, until she was caught there, beneath his shadow. "Since you have returned to the Underground, you have been drinking its water, eating its food, breathing its air… absorbing its magic. By this point, Sarah…" A tilt of his head, as he considered her, "It has claimed you in all but name."

"Wait…" She tried vainly to keep up with this. "So I can't _leave_? I thought you said that I couldn't come _back_?" Bad enough, certainly… But she couldn't focus on that yet. "Now you're saying I'm _trapped _here?"

"Not trapped _here_, precious." Jareth denied, looking like he'd expected no less of a reaction from the girl, but moving past her now, as if looming over her had never been his intention at all. "Of course you can leave. ...It will take all my power to return you to the mortal world, of course… But you _can _leave." A pause, and then, softly, "You just can't come back. Once your tie to this world is broken, as tightly as you are now bond… it will never be able to be formed again. You will be forced to remain in your world, forever." A pause, then, more softly, with a lift of his eyebrows, "Or until you die."

A long quiet followed this, in which no one said anything. Not Sarah, not her friends, not even the goblin king. He did turn, eventually, and consider her again. Considering eyes that looked like everything the girl knew might slip through her fingers with the next breath. He smiled, one of those smiles that said he didn't really _want _to smile. "So as I've said… When you lose your dreams again, they will be gone for good, Sarah."

There was nothing to say to that, but trying to grasp the idea of everything else he was saying was, somehow harder, so she focused on this. "How can you be so certain I'll lose them again?" She asked softly, ignoring, for now, the lingering gazes she'd yet to turn to meet. "Why would I let that happen, after everything I've been through to get them back?"

"I know that for the same reason I knew you'd lose them the first time…" The goblin king denied, no longer hesitating. "Sarah… That world and this one were never intended to coexist." He reached out, and just so lightly, his fingertips touched her own… Less in comforting her, than seeking something himself. "Life in your world, necessitates forgetting that you were ever part of mine."

Sarah didn't draw away, didn't even notice, consciously, that he was touching her… But her fingers did close on his briefly, as she shook her head, pinching the place between her eyes, telling her, again, again, _again_, that he was lying… And forced to face the fact that he had no reason to. "You mean all this was for nothing?" It wasn't fair, it wasn't… "So, what am I supposed to do?"

Now, Jareth paused. He pressed his lips together, briefly, and gazed down at the girl… So distant in that moment that she might already be back home. "There is one other alternative, Sarah…" He noted, his tone marginally more intense now. "Don't you know what it is?"

"No." She looked up, helplessly, and shook her head. "What?"

Again, the pause, but this time, Sarah was looking back at him, and something seemed to pass between them. Her eyes widened, before he ever said made his suggestion, and her lips quivered with unspoken words, until she managed, softly…

"I could stay." He didn't even have to tell her… She pressed her lips together, frustrated, overwhelmed, and tried to yank her hand away, only to have it held in place by him. "You mean fear you," She whispered, her voice thick as she struggled against his grasp, "Love you, obey you…?"

Very quietly, "That offers still stands, Sarah."

This time she yanked her arm so hard, that he had to let go, or risk injuring her. She was almost surprised he let go… But she faced off against him, jaw clenched, eyes doing their best not to spill. "No. " She whispered, unhesitant. "No way." She shook her head, taking a decisive step back. "Never."

Jareth just nodded, like he'd expected no less… Then looked back at her, his gaze as serious as she'd ever seen. "Then Sarah…" Almost pleadingly, from the proud goblin king, "Just _stay_."

She'd been ready to shoot back… something, she didn't know what, but faced with a goblin king who looked increasingly human, and an offer that seemed uncharacteristically without agenda, she faltered, and frowned. And found herself, just for an instant, considering the idea. "You mean… just stay?" She whispered slowly, unwilling to believe that… That someone like her could put away thoughts of faery tale kingdoms, and then find herself right back where she'd started… Being offered to let stay in one.

Strangely, after four years away, it was harder to say no this time.

Her gaze turned around the trees, lifted, to the canopy, and its approximation of a sky above… And then she turned her head down, sharply, and shook it. She couldn't. This wasn't her world, and she wasn't a child anymore… And still she heard herself whispering, almost under her breath, "So that's it? No strings, no tricks?"

Jareth's eyes glinted, and he smiled… Watching her, trying to read her, but unwilling to let that pass without a bit of a tease, "Well, a few, of course." He denied, tipping his blonde mane, waiting for her counter. "You know _that_."

She made a guttural sound, deep in her throat. "Jareth!" She growled, starting to step away from him…

And almost stumbling over Ludo, who was now standing behind her. His great arms closed about her gently, to steady her, and she found herself turning, looking into his great, crinkled face, his eyes dark with worry. "Ludo…"

"Precious," It was Jareth speaking again, as he walked slowly around the lumbering giant, and incredibly, leaned on his shoulder, smiling at her like it was the most natural thing in the world, "You can't expect me not to be myself." An amused sound. "If you stay, be certain that I will do my best to take advantage of it."

That, sounded like the goblin king she knew. "…But that's it?" She heard herself asking, trying, and failing, to turn her thoughts towards home… _Her_ home. "That's all?"

Jareth made a flamboyant gesture with his arms, smirking disarmingly. "That's it." He agreed, before settling back to rest against Ludo's side… Ludo, who was just looking at him puzzledly, and making no move to draw away. "What do you say, Sarah?"

Stay… Live in the Underground, instead of just writing about it. Staying with her friends, instead of just remembering them. But what she'd be giving up… Her parents, her world…

…Toby…

"I can't…" She whispered, refusing to accept this, turning from one to the other, lingering on each of her older friends, then Blue, and finally the last person in any world she'd ever thought would be one of them. "You can't expect me to stay, and give up everything I know!"

The goblin king nodded, slowly. "Then leave." He said simply, not softening his next words. "And forget us." He released Ludo, and looked… looked suddenly, as if he just didn't want to be having this discussion anymore. "You can't have it both ways." A pause, then, "You don't have to decide now, but soon. The longer you stay, the more risk you take of that choice being taken away from you."

"But I'm not waiting here for you to decide, Sarah." A tugging at limp lace, and pursed lips, and he dug his heel into the soil, and lifted his gaze back towards the mound of stone, still some ways distant. "When you figure out what you're going to do, come find me. You know where I'll be." A long hesitation, then he added, not quite looking at hr again, "If I had more time, I'm certain I could convince you to make the choice I want you to… Or perhaps I'm just proud enough to think that I could."

As he started walking away, Sarah spoke up, without really meaning to, "Your pride…" He paused, but didn't look back, "It- it suits you, Jareth."

A slow, slight curl of his lips. "As your stubbornness suits you, precious." He murmured, waiting to see if she'd say more, and when she didn't, offering something himself. "Look Sarah," He held out his hand, but this time, didn't summon a crystal, simply gesturing around them, "Look at what I'm offering. You turned it away once before… Have you really been happy? Do you really want to leave _again?"_

He turned, and stood there, facing her. Everything she remembered. Things she'd never thought to see. His eyes, deep and gray, peering out beneath smoke and gold, challenging her, as he always had… And a look to them that she'd almost forgotten. One she'd seen, briefly, that night on the stairs.

"Sarah… stay."

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	17. Growing Up?

This is a disclaimer. The reason this is a disclaimer, is because the work, known as the Labyrinth, does not belong to me. This is fanfiction, people. Meaning that I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Underground, or any of those delightful little wonders we love about this movie. Doesn't that bite. Labyrinth is a work of Jim Henson, may he rest in peace. (Though if he knew about those mangas, from what I've heard, he wouldn't be.) It is meant as a tribute to the original work, not a ripoff. I am making no money.

That being said, what's left of this fic, is mine.

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A short epilogue, endings are tricky, that being said, this is the end. Enjoy! (I hope...)

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Sarah sat there, her back pressed against the squat stone wall, her knees drawn up to her chest… Her head hung in an effort not to look at the others. For their part, they just sat around her in a protective semi-circle, quiet as anything, waiting for her to make up her mind. Even Blue, uncharacteristically still, and sedate, as she perched on Hoggle's knee… An unspoken truce between the two enemies, at least for the moment, for the sake of their mortal friend.

At last, she leaned back more, and sighed, looking skyward again… As if her answers were up there, in the unshaped sky-stuff of Jareth's unformed magic. No sun anymore, nothing resembling clouds… Just shimmering bands of what couldn't quite be called light, beckoning her, daring her, to try to look beyond them. Or at least hold her gaze, for more than a span of breaths.

She couldn't. It spun and teased at something deeper than her eyes, and after a moment, she shook her head, and turned away. It was hard to look at for long. It was forever, in a way she didn't know if she could ever get used to.

But it was beautiful.

Pursing her soft mouth, she tapped her fingers slowly along the top of her leg, considering nothing at all anymore. "It's not like I don't like the underground." She whispered suddenly, making everyone there pay sudden, sharp attention. "I love it. Even if Jareth does like making things…" A wave of her hand, leaving that unsaid. Then she fell silent for a moment, before noting, "I'm just trying to figure out what I'd be losing, if I stayed." Another pause, then, with a shake of her head, and a soft little whisper, "It's getting harder and harder to remember what those are, though."

Hoggle shifted, looking uncomfortable, and exchanged glanced with Sir Didymus… Or rather, he tried to exchange glances with Didymus, but the fox knight just looked confused, obviously missing what was being said here. "Um, Sarah…" The small man prompted, after a moment, "Not that I want to be the one to say so… But that could be Jareth's doing, you know." A wave of his hand, reluctantly. "Making you, forget, you know?"

Sarah smiled humorlessly, and shook her head, slowly. "No." She whispered, after an extended moment. "I don't think so, Hoggle." She lifted her gaze, and settled it on him, almost unsettling in their intensity. "Do you know what I've spent the last four years doing, Hoggle?" She prompted, very softly.

"Uh…" Hoggle just looked at her blankly, furrowing his brow, as if, somehow, he _should_ know the answer, and was kind of ashamed that he didn't. "Uh, no." He admitted at last, looking up to her for the answer. "What?"

"For the last four years," She whispered, finding it just as hard to meet her friend's gaze, as stare at Jareth's sky, "I have imagined what it would have been like, if I never left." A pause, as she stretched her legs out in the dirty forest loam, and looked skyward again. "I have written… Maybe twenty stories, about the adventures we would have had. The fun, the challenges… the good and the bad…" A useless gesture of her arm, towards the impossible nothing she was currently staring at, as if it somehow signified him. "_Jareth_." As if that was a whole concept, just in and of itself.

Hoggle waited for her to say more… and she didn't. So he shifted, again, found himself considering the little faery on his knee, and wondered, himself, what it might have been like. Better than the last few years sitting in a swamp, he was sure…

"Oh." He said at last, because this was all that really could be said to a confession like this… The idea that, she regretted her decision to go home, so long ago. And the realization that she was faced with that choice again… And not sure if what she was saying was that she did want to stay, or that, if she left, it really was time to leave all this behind her for good. "So, what are you saying, Sarah?"

"I don't know." She denied, softly, pinching at her forehead, to try to ease the strain of staring at the impossible lights. "But I think…" And she fell silent, before she actually said what she thought, as if she wasn't quite ready to say it. "I think I need to go find Jareth." She said at last, pushing herself, clumsily, to her feet. "Before I don't have any choice at all, anymore."

"Oh, yes, okay." Hoggle swatted the blue faery gently off his knee, and pushed himself up as well, casting a glance back at Ludo and Didymus, who were doing the same. "Er… You know we're behind you Sarah," He went on, after a moment, "Whatever you decide to do."

Sarah smiled, fleetingly, but genuinely. "I know." And she leaned down to hug him, and before he could protest, kissed him soundly on the side of his head… And well, he didn't this time. Protest. He just sort of flushed, and smiled, looking embarrassed, and twiddled his thumbs.

Squaring herself, Sarah straightened up, and turned, gazing at the porthole in the stone with defiance in her eyes. "Come on." She said, matter-of-factly, "We don't want to keep the goblin king waiting."

"Indeed!" Sir Didymus agreed, emphatically, before Hoggle could interject with something snide, "One must never keep _royalty_ waiting, Lady Sarah!"

Unable to resist a grin, Sarah mused on her 'choice of friends,' as the goblin king would have put it… Then considered the entranceway into the stone wall, that seemed to lead nowhere. She was not new enough to this game, mind, to believe it actually did. Still, no more than four feet in height, rounded, and edged with well worn wood, it didn't look particularly impressive… A bit like a hobbit hole, from those stories she'd read so enthusiastically, when she was little. She wondered if _that_ was coincidence… Or indeed, in anything in the labyrinth ever was.

Lacking a doorknob, Sarah squatted, and reached out gingerly with her fingertips, giving the portal an exploratory push… And it swung open, easily, without a groan of protest.

Still ducked low, Sarah still had to drop her head to make it through the opening… And then she froze.

Goblins. Everywhere. Almost literally, covering every surface… Tabletops, steps, shelves, makeshift chairs, once expensive rugs… Loud as anything, joking, chatting, gossiping… Until they turned, as a one, and saw her. Then, everything grew very quiet. And they watched her, not moving.

Sarah moved slowly into the room…An enormous chamber, really, well aware that every eye was on her, and still unable to resist taking a quick look around, to try and absorb her surroundings. Walls of stone, old as time… Tapestries and tarnished trumpets, displayed along the wall. Juttings of wood at every possible angle, starting just above her head, and leading off, somewhere into impossibly high rafters, all but lost to sight above. Beams of caught sunlight, appearing randomly where they pleased, and piercing the gloom, fragments of dust, hung within. Everything waiting.

Hoggle, having appeared behind her, gave the chamber a more cursory examination, and rolled his eyes. "_Here_ again." He muttered, dusting off his sleeves in something like disgust.

Sarah cast a brief look back again, before trying to refocus her eyes onto what looked like… things, moving about in the rafters above. "_Where_ again, Hoggle?" She asked, warily, but entranced… As she always seemed to be, facing the goblin king's works.

"Why, the castle beyond the goblin city, of course!" Hoggle grunted, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Don't know why we had to go through so much trouble to get _here_. It ain't like there ain't a hundred other ways to get here, that woulda been easier!"

She couldn't help it, she smirked, wondering if Hoggle even remembered how much trouble it had taken for her to get here the last time… And then reflecting, honestly, that it _had_ taken much less time…

"So, where's…?" She started to say, noting now, the conspicuous emptiness of the ornate chair in the middle of the room, the only one not occupied by goblins of some shape and size… Only to be interrupted as every creature there interrupted in a cheer, many throwing garbage about their heads in lieu of confetti, and really, all in all, setting up an alarming din. "Hold on, I need to know… Stop that, I'm trying to ask you…!"

"Would you all be quiet!" She shouted at last, frustrated with their endless cheering… Only to have them, to a one, fall absolutely silent. After a moment, one or two giggled, nervously, but didn't offer any more. "Thank you." Sarah said primly, forcing her nerves to calm, at least a little. "Now will one of you…" She cut in quickly again, as several heads perked up at once, "_One_ of you," She stressed again, "Kindly tell me which way Jareth went?" A pause. "You know, the goblin king?"

As one, over fifty hands lifted, and pointed to a door just off behind them, which she was almost certain hadn't been there before. Sarah took a deep breath, and nodded. There. That had been relatively painless. "Thank you." She murmured, with as much dignity as she could muster… Then boldly walked through the formerly milling throng, keeping her skirts tightly pressed to her side, in case a daring imp should decide to peek under them… Well, she wouldn't put it past them. They were goblins, after all.

But they parted, on either side, like sheaves of wheat… Watching, with wide, excited eyes. Shifting nervously as she passed… Nudging, and whispering, and winking.

When Sarah had reached the door, they closed in behind her, not letting her friends follow… Not that they had tried. She looked back at them for a moment in puzzlement, expecting them to protest… Only for Hoggle to meet her gaze, grimly. "You said, the last time, that this is the way it's done, Sarah." He said at last, somewhat quietly.

"That is right, Lady Sarah!" Didymus agreed, giving her a strained smile. "And if this is the way it is done, this is the way it is done, yes?" Ludo, for his part, just watched her sadly… This was the way they'd said goodbye before, after all, without ever really saying goodbye… And from the regret in his gaze, she could see that he didn't expect things to go any differently this time.

"Right…" Sarah whispered, wishing she could change the rules now, this late in the game, "That's the way it's done." She continued staring at them for a moment, then forced her gaze away and considered the door before her. There was no telling what waited on the other side… This was Jareth's game to play, and he never made his games easy.

Again, the push against the door, and open it swung… And Sarah stepped through. A brief moment of dizziness grasped her, and her head spun, and she was forced to drop to her knees, and steady her head between her hands, until the lurching stopped. The funny thing was that it was familiar… But in a way that felt like she just wasn't used to anymore.

When the lurching stopped, but the sense of dizziness didn't, she looked up… and up… and found herself staring at the floor, some distance below. Winding stairs, impossible openings… Familiar, yes.

The Escher Room. Jareth had rebuilt it. _Why?_

Turning to look from side to side, it took her a moment to locate the missing goblin king… But then she saw him, standing on the balcony, beside a portal that led… Who knew where? Her head spun again, making her shake it… Then cleared. Jareth turned, and regarded her, emotionlessly. Slouched against the railing, legs crossed as they stretched behind him… Clad all in white, with bold black stripes across the vest, and feathers running down the length of his arms, and cresting his collar with long, swaying plumes. He didn't say a word.

Sarah turned her gaze around the room again, getting a sense of her bearings a little better this time… Or as well as could be expected, considering where she was. Pressing her lips into a thin line, she didn't say a word to the goblin king… Yet. Instead, she chose a staircase, and started climbing.

It was futile, really… If Jareth wanted to, he could keep her going from door to door, and stair to stair, with no effort at all. Until her time was up. Last time, she'd been desperate, and jumped… And instead of letting her fall to her death, he'd destroyed the room that would have bound her to its reality.

This time, she wanted to win fairly… For however little '_fair_' meant to the goblin king.

Quickly finding herself further away than when she'd started, she gamely chose another staircase, then another, then another… Then got fed up, finding herself hanging directly over the goblin king's head… Either that, or he was hanging directly over her head. "Jareth!" She sighed, crossing her arms impatiently. "I don't have time for this!"

"Then by all mean, Sarah… Say what you're going to say." He didn't look up at the girl, not five feet above his head, seeming to reflect, instead, on his rebuilt impossibility. "I've let you get far closer than I ever intended to, so many years ago… And you're right. You _are_ running out of time."

Sarah shook her head, feeling somehow like the blood was rushing to it, even though she was the one standing right side up… At least from her perspective. "I've made my decision." She said softly, running both hands through her hand, fingers twining through the supple strands, as she regarded him, hanging there. "Don't you want to know what it is?"

Silence, for a moment. Then, "Do you _want_ me to want to know what it is?" He taunted softly, still more lost in his own thoughts, than listening to anything she was saying. Then, before she could answer, "Of _course_ I want to know, precious. Do you suppose I've been standing here for the last two hours waiting for anything else?"

Two hours? Her grasp of time really was getting sketchy. Sarah pursed her lips, frowning a little. "Come down here, where I can see you."

"You can't see me from where you are?" He murmured right back, only to sigh, and draw away from the balcony, straightening smoothly. "Very well, precious. Once more, I do myself to live up to your expectations, it seems." He turned, disappeared into the doorway…

And reappeared a moment later by her side, appearing through the door she'd just walked through herself. So she was right, his magic was the only rule here… "And what, Sarah," He mused, coming to a stop just before her, as she turned to face him again, "Is your decision?"

Sarah's eyes, for a moment, flicked away. She faltered. She'd made her decision, she knew what it was, she knew it was right and she didn't intend to change her mind now… She turned her gaze back to him. "No one can keep from growing up, Jareth." She whispered, finding it, oddly difficult, to hold his gaze. "No matter how much we want to."

The goblin king's lips thinned. "I suppose so, precious." He agreed, clearly not pleased. He took a long, distancing step back. "That's your decision then, is it?"

"You didn't let me finish." Sarah denied, reclaiming that step he'd surrendered, and growing, stronger now, as she built up momentum. "No one can keep from growing up… But I refuse to believe that growing up means we have to let go of our dreams. Forget the things we loved, the people. I _won't_ believe it." A pause, as the goblin king was now watching her _very_ closely. "I think," She whispered slowly, "Maybe growing up, means learning which dreams are worth holding on to. Which parts of what we loved, are worth believing in, no matter how much we grow."

Jareth regarded her without emotion, still… But his eyes, for the first time, looked interested. Curious. "So what _are_ you saying, exactly, precious?" He whispered, not breaking her gaze for an instant.

"I guess, what I'm saying…" She shook her head, looked, hopelessly lost for an instant, and still as strong as he'd ever seen her. "Jareth, if I left, again, I'd never forgive myself." She smiled, helplessly, and shook her head. "The Underground is too much a part of me to let go." Then, softly, "You're, too much a part of me, to let go. Jareth."

He tilted his head, watching her, a trace of his former smirk, his misplaced amused pride, showing there again. "Put it simply, Sarah. Now. While you still have the chance."

Sarah nodded, slowly, her jaw firmed. "Goblin king… I want to stay." A pause, a small smile. "I know there'll be things I miss, people… But this world means too much to me. I want to stay. Even if it means forever."

"Forever's not that long, Sarah." Jareth whispered, reaching out, and brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. "Take it from someone who's had to recently get used to the idea himself."

Smirking, flushing, Sarah pushed his hand away. "Just don't think that anything's changed, goblin king." She warned him, a little subdued, as already, she questioned her decision, but refused to take it back. It was right, she knew it was right… She knew she would be _happy_.

"Jareth." He corrected her easily, his lips pulled into a smirk. "And I wouldn't dream of it, Sarah." A pause, before he added, a bit condescendingly, "Not _yet_, anyway. You still have far too much to learn about your new home…"

She just smiled, hiking up her skirts, and turning to run back the way she came… Only to remember that she actually was hopelessly lost. She paused, frustrated, and turned back to him. "I have to tell everyone," She pressed, impatient with him again already, "How do I get back out?"

"And that, Sarah," He chuckled softly, reaching out, and turning her, physically, "Is precisely what I mean." He pointed to, again, a door that hadn't been there before. "Go. Your friends are waiting." He smirked. "Have fun."

Sarah shot him a smile, and ran towards the door… He watched her go, leaving it open behind her, and wanted to laugh when the cheers went up at her reappearance, and flakes of confetti drifted through the open doorway. He was grinning, widely, as he set it to close with a flick of his fingers.

She'd made her choice… She'd even made the right choice. All the easier for him, since her allotted time had ended almost an hour before. He'd wanted it to be _her_ choice, and now it was. Sarah belonged to the Underground. And the Underground, would _always_ belong to him.

And the goblin king? He could bide his time… There was all the time in the world. Maybe more. The point was, this time, she wasn't leaving…

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End file.
